asked the Minister for Social Welfare the total number registered at the local unemployment exchange at Killorglin, County Kerry, at the time when a person was nominated for the position of postman at Castlemaine, and the number in receipt of (a) unemployment benefit and (b) unemployment assistance; and whether the person employed as temporary postman prior to the making of the permanent appointment is now in receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Castlemaine (Kerry) Postman.
35.
The total number registered was 180, of whom 75 were receiving unemployment benefit and 72 unemployment assistance. The person referred to in the question is at present in receipt of unemployment benefit.
Does the Minister consider it fair to disemploy that married man who he says is now in receipt of unemployment benefit, and to nominate a single man who has only recently returned from England?
As I explained to the Deputy, the only person who fulfilled the requirements of the employing authority was submitted for the position.
Is the Minister aware that this individual who he now says was not suitable had been employed in that position for seven years?
I did not express any opinion about suitability.
He has five or six children. Why is he not suitable now?
I did not express any opinion about suitability.
He could not sign on because he was working for the Post Office at the time. The Minister is getting around it.
I am not getting around it. He did not fulfil the requirements.
He fulfilled the requirements on two occasions during the past seven years.
It has nothing to do with me. I have no knowledge of it or interest in it.
What are the special requirements?
It has nothing to do with me and I have no interest whatever in it. The only person signed on the exchange who fulfilled the requirements was sent on.
What are the requirements?
It has nothing at all to do with me.
Cannot the Minister tell the House and the country what the requirements are?
The requirements have nothing to do with me. I have no interest in them. The branch manager of the exchange sent forward the only person who had signed, and who fulfilled the requirements.
The present person is a single man who has returned from England and he is replacing a married man with five or six children.
Order.
It is a pretty smelly scandal.