Senator Douglas is not quite accurate in what he has said with regard to these conventions. One of them does entail new legislation. That is the excuse for delaying until this late period of the Session the bringing of these conventions before either House of the Oireachtas. I had to be sure of what form that legislation was to take, and I had to wait and see it drafted before I could include the last of these conventions, concerning the age of children and their employment in agriculture. With regard to the others and International Labour Conventions in general, I can deal with them, I think, in a very brief way. Seventeen conventions have been passed, and for the purposes of the Saorstát I would like to divide these into five categories. Two we have already ratified by resolution passed in the Dáil and Seanad last year; six we are now moving to add.
That leaves nine outstanding. Of these nine, one is in a peculiar position, and stands by itself. It is the seventh of the seventeen, and is the one dealing with the prohibition of white phosphorous in matches. We have legislation prohibiting the use of white phosphorous in matches, but there is a small point of difficulty in procedure, and the formal adherence to that, or the ratification of it, has been left over for the moment. There are then eight outstanding. I want to take these in two groups of four each to make the matter clear. One group deals with seamen. The first of this group is concerned with an indemnity to seamen whose unemployment is caused by the loss or foundering of their vessel. The second deals with the organisation and maintenance of exchanges for securing employment for seamen.
The third prohibits the employment of young persons under the age of 18 as stokers or trimmers at sea. The fourth makes compulsory an annual medical examination of young persons employed on ships. These four are being left over until the autumn, or the early portion of next year, when we hope to have merchant shipping legislation. They must necessarily remain over until we are dealing in bulk with the question of merchant shipping.
There is a second group of four about which we make no motion to-day, nor do we indicate any tendency about them. For one of these four I would hold that a prima facie case has been made, and that is the prohibition of white lead in paint. There are three others. One deals with the question of a 48-hour week. The second establishes a weekly period of rest of 24 hours in industry, and the third of the Conventions passed is what is known as the Maternity Convention. As I have said, with regard to these four I make no motion. The four affecting seamen I propose to postpone until merchant shipping legislation is introduced. One, number seven, is actually in force here, but we are not formally adhering to it. Two we have already adhered to, and six we are now moving to ratify. Five of these are already in existence in the Saorstát. The legislation that brought the first into force was the Labour Exchange and Unemployment Acts. The ones marked (b), (c), (d) and (e) in the White Paper are effected by the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act. The one marked (f) is the only one about which there is any difficulty, that is the Convention concerning the age of admitting children to agricultural work.
I had to delay in bringing forward this resolution until I saw the compulsory School Attendance Bill, which has been drafted by the Minister for Education, and which will probably be introduced one of these days. As that seeks to establish a compulsory attendance at schools up to at least 14 years, that places us in line with this Convention, and I felt I could go ahead with this Convention. That age limit may not, of course, be accepted by the Oireachtas afterwards. But it is a matter of Government policy to put forward that Bill with the age limit of 14 years, consequently I am moving on the lines of Government policy. Exception may be taken to what is called practical vocational training, and the Bill as drafted makes allowance in that regard. There is a question as to whether children may or may not be employed outside school hours. On that I have heard rumours of a conflict between the farmers' representatives and the Department of Education. The farmers' representatives intend to move that the school hours shall be so regulated as to permit the employment of children during school hours during the seed time and harvest time. I am in the happy position that no matter who wins in that conflict my Convention must necessarily be in line, for whatever school hours are accepted the Convention operates on the basis of these school hours. So long as the age is 14 it matters not what is the allocation of school hours.
