asked the Minister for Local Government the present definition of agricultural labourers for the purposes of the Labourers Acts generally, and for the purposes of making representations under the Labourers Acts of 1886, 1891 and 1903, as amended.
Written Answers. - Definition of Agricultural Labourers.
24.
Definition of Agricultural Labourer. The statutory definition of the term "agricultural labourer" has been so extended by statutes enacted since the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1883, that it now includes various classes of persons whose employment is not directly related to the land. These statutory definitions are as follows:
Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1886: section 4: So much of the twenty-third section of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1885, as defines an agricultural labourer shall be and is hereby repealed.
The expression "agricultural labourer" in the said Acts and in this Act shall mean a man or woman who does agricultural work for hire at any season of the year on the land of some other person or persons, and shall include hand-loom weavers and fishermen doing agricultural work as aforesaid, and shall also include herdsmen.
Irish Land Act, 1903: section 93: The expression "agricultural labourer" in the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1896, and this Act, shall include any person (other than a domestic or menial servant) working for hire in a rural district whose average wages, in the year preceding the lodgment of any representation under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1896, affecting him, do not exceed two shillings and sixpence per day.
Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919: section 1 as amended by the Labourers Act, 1936. (1) For the purpose of the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1918, and this Act, the definition of the expression "agricultural labourer" in section ninety-three of the Irish Land Act, 1903, shall be extended so as to include:—
(a) any person (other than a domestic or menial servant) working for hire in a rural district whose average wages exceed two shillings and sixpence a day;
(b) any person not working for hire but working in a rural district at some trade or handicraft without employing any persons except members of his own family;
Provided that—
any question that may arise as to whether a person is a person to whom this section applies shall be determined by the Minister for Local Government, whose determination shall be final and conclusive.
Housing (Amendment) Act, 1941: section 2. Section 3 of the Labourers Act, 1936, (No. 24 of 1936), is hereby amended by the insertion before subsection (2) therof of the following sub-section, that is to say:—
"(1A) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 93 of the Irish Land Act, 1903 and of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of Section 1 of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1919, a person who is working for hire shall not be prevented from being an agricultural labourer within the meaning of the Principal Acts solely by reason of the fact that he is not working for hire in a rural district."
Housing (Amendment) Act, 1948: section 33. The expression "agricultural labourer" in the Labourers Acts shall include any man who—
(a) is normally engaged in doing agricultural work on the land of a relative, and
(b) resides with the relative when he applied for, or became tenant of, a cottage provided by a council of a county under the Labourers Acts.