I had an opportunity, although not present at this debate, of reading what was said on Thursday last, and while I want to follow whatever arguments were put up, I do not want to follow by any means the tone in which the arguments were put forward. If I may deal with one of the minor points in connection with this matter, Senator O'Farrell has again and again given utterance to what I must regard as a delusion from which certain members of the Labour Party, both here and in the Dáil, suffer, and that is that a big number of men have left the scheme.
I was asked in the Dáil, as the Minister responsible for this scheme, to state the facts. I understated the facts, to my own detriment. There is no question of 1,000 men having left the scheme. I talked of 156 workers who were deprived of employment by the strike pickets, 18 rejected on medical grounds, and 5 dismissed as inefficient. Certain of the others left of their own accord. I can be quite precise as to that number now; 45 left of their own accord, without giving any reason. The other figure with which I must supplement that reply is this, that of the 156 who were called off by pickets over 100 have since returned, and are at present working on the works, and of the 56 who are not back, a certain number presented themselves for reemployment, and were not taken on, because it was not considered that they were suitable for the work. So that, instead of 1,000 men leaving, which is Senator O'Farrell's statement, unsupported by any evidence, the fact of the matter is that 156 were called off by strike pickets, that 100 of these have returned, that the great majority of the remainder presented themselves for re-employment and were not accepted. Forty-five left without stating any reasons. I do not want to say that the example I am now giving applies to all the 45, but there is a statement I would like to make with regard to three of them. Three men presented themselves for work one evening and got a night's accommodation in the huts. They were aroused next morning to go to work. They dressed themselves fully, including their overcoats, and they went out and looked at the work and said that was not the work they thought of taking up. Then they made to get out of the camp, and they were asked where they were going to go, and they said that, as a matter of fact, they were going to the nearest workhouse and that they had lost their way the night before. In other words, these men left because they were asked to work. I do not say they are typical of the 45, but the position is that, instead of having all this very large number of men leaving the works, you have a very small number who actually did leave. That argument defeats itself. If a very big number of men are going to leave the works because they cannot stand the nature of the employment, there is no necessity to have long labour debates either here or in the Dáil, or any organised opposition to the scheme. The nature of the scheme will defeat itself. No people will stay on if by a certain period they find the work is such that they cannot continue. If that is taken as an argument, we need not debate it any further, because the scheme will not go on. It is a well-known fact that at the moment there are 900 men working on the scheme, despite the fact that some few men have left.
