Senators are no doubt aware of the circumstances under which the Cork tramways ceased to be operated. The tramways were owned by the same company that was responsible for the supply of electricity to the City of Cork. The electricity undertaking was acquired by the Electricity Supply Board, but the tramway company was not. The Cork company was under an obligation to maintain the tramways only so long as it had the business of selling electricity. Consequently, when the electricity undertaking was transferred to the Electricity Supply Board, the company proposed to terminate the tramway. For a period the tram services were taken over by the Irish Omnibus Company, but they were afterwards closed down. At the present time there are no trams in Cork, the local transport arrangements being in the hands of the Irish Omnibus Company.
A number of persons employed by the tramway company lost their employment, and they were not entitled under the terms of the Electricity Supply Act to compensation such as the employees of the electricity undertaking were. Representations were made to our predecessors that these people should be given compensation of some kind, and when this Government came into office these representations were repeated. I went into the matter in considerable detail, because I was not at all anxious to establish the precedent that persons who lost their employment as an indirect consequence of the setting up of a national undertaking, were entitled to compensation. I examined it for the purpose of seeing whether there were any special circumstances which would justify unusual action in this case. I found there were such unusual circumstances in that persons employed on the tramways for any length of time became thoroughly unfitted for any other class of work. The work was of such a nature that those who undertook it became incapable of any other work for a considerable time afterwards.
I found on inquiry in Cork that those who had been employed on the trams and who had not succeeded in getting employment on the buses, were still in the main unemployed and were not regarded favourably by Cork employers as workmen. Consequently, they might remain unemployed for some considerable time. I felt then that these circumstances justified us taking special action in this case. There was also the fact of the close association between the tramway company and the business of supplying electricity in Cork. It might be argued that the loss of employment was therefore a direct consequence of the inauguration of a national electricity scheme. Legally it was not so, but morally it might be so held. Certainly it was a case which, because of the close connection between the two undertakings, justified special action. We examined the proposals made to us which involved the provision of pensions which it was suggested should be charged in part against the rates in Cork and in part against the consumers of electricity. We found however, that the charge was likely to be so heavy that it could not be realised, certainly in the case of the electricity consumers—in other words that the increase in rates which would be necessary in order to bring in the money would be so great that the consumption of electricity would fall considerably, so that we would have no chance of getting the money in that way. We then considered the possibility of compensation by other means and finally we reached this arrangement; to pay to each of the employees the equivalent of one month's salary for each year of service with the company, the total capital sum to be advanced by the State and to be repaid to the extent of one half by the Cork Corporation and one half by the Electricity Supply Board out of its general revenue. The Cork Corporation unanimously agreed to the striking of the rate and the position is now that only the enactment of this legislation is required to enable the men to get compensation. There is to be set up under the Bill an advisory committee which will examine the applications for compensation. I do not imagine that their task will be very difficult but it is of course possible that there might be bogus applications even from Cork. It is the duty of the committee to insure that a list of bona fide applicants will be prepared, and the amount of compensation determined in each case. As soon as that is done payment will be made.
