asked the Minister for Lands the number of Land Commission workers who have received notices of termination of employment under the provisions of the Redundancy Payments Acts.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Commission Workers.
15.
Cavan): The number of Land Commission workers who have received notice of termination of employment under the provisions of the Redundancy Payments Acts is 85.
Could the Minister give me a breakdown as to counties or areas?
(Cavan): I can give the Deputy a breakdown. The most useful breakdown I could give him is year by year since the Redundancy Acts were introduced.
The information I am looking for is a breakdown of the present 85 in regions or counties.
(Cavan): I can give the Deputy a breakdown. In 1968, three people became redundant; 1969, six; 1970, five; 1971, 11; 1972, 25; 1973, 16; 1974, 6; 1975, 6 and 1976, 7. The Deputy will see that out of the 85 redundancies 50 occurred before I became Minister for Lands.
Would the Minister like to say how it is that there are redundancies when in fact there is plenty of outstanding work in the Land Commission?
(Cavan): I have not got that information but the Deputy will see that 1975 was nearly five times as bad as any other year since the Redundancy Acts came into operation.
1975?
(Cavan): In 1972 we had 25 redundancies and in 1975 we had six.
Did the Minister say 85 this year?
(Cavan): I said 85 altogether since 1968 and 50 of those took place before I became Minister for Lands.
The Minister is adding them all up.
(Cavan): No. Out of 85, 25 took place in 1972.
Would the Minister attempt to answer my supplementary?
(Cavan): I am sure the Deputy is sorry he asked any question.
(Interruptions.)
Order.
With regard to the urgency of the land settlement is it not a wonder there are any redundancies now? I know it is the Minister's policy to give out land but it takes staff to do that. Surely he should attempt to end redundancies and try to speed up land settlement? There seems to have been six and seven redundancies all along except 1972. I would expect an increase of staff if we are to get anything done with land settlement.
(Cavan): As a matter of fact, once I got down to it business redundancies seemed to reduce substantially. In 1971, there were 11 redundancies; 1972, 25; 1973, 16; 1974, six; 1975, six, and in 1976, seven. I imagine that machinery has something to do with that.
Question No. 16.
Does the Minister not think that a strong employer such as his Department, would make a special effort to ensure there would be no redundancies seeing there are almost 109,000 people unemployed at the moment?
(Cavan): I have improved the position enormously.
There are 109,000 people looking for jobs.
Now that the Minister has Directive 160 and is supposed to be doing reasonably well in carrying it out, in conjunction with the ordinary run of the mill work of the Land Commission, should he not be increasing staff substantially?
We are having a repetition of questions.
(Cavan): I had not a general question down. With regard to the inspectorate staff of the Land Commission, when I became Minister for Lands I found out there were 20 vacancies unfilled and the amount of land being divided was small. I filled those 20 inspectorate vacancies in order to get going.