I desire to call attention to the situation in Wexford. I think the position is very well known to Deputies.
INDUSTRIAL SITUATION IN WEXFORD.
I have received a memorial from the Wexford Corporation, under the seal of that body, signed by the Mayor and Town Clerk. The industrial situation there is very serious. The facts are that large stocks of manufactured goods have accumulated, for which there is little prospect of immediate sale. It would appear that the ordinary business slump has been accentuated by the fact that, owing to the assaults on property throughout the country, there has been a corresponding limitation of business and a tightening of the purse strings by practically every company that can avoid development of business. A proposition has come from Wexford, that the extension of the waterworks might be undertaken at an estimated cost of about £10,000. And this is at present under consideration, with a number of other requests of a similar nature from practically the entire country. I have intimated to the President that I will put a proposition before him shortly for expenditure of a huge sum of money to enable employment to be given in constructive work throughout various parts of the country, where unemployment is very acute. It is hoped to be able to guarantee the contribution or loan being raised by the local authority in question and to distribute the burden as fairly as is possible under the circumstances. This memorial is at present under consideration with others. And, as I have said, I hope to be able to put a scheme before the President in this and other matters very shortly.
The following is the memorial in question:—
To the Ministry of Local Government of the Provisional Government of Ireland.—The Memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Wexford.
Respectfully sheweth:—
That Memorialists act as a Corporate Body under the powers of a Charter of Incorporation obtained from the Crown under date of 27th July, 1846, this being the last of several such Instruments obtained from the date of the first one in A.D. 1318. That Wexford had, 1911, a population of 11,531, an increase of 363 in ten years, and there is substantial reason for the belief that a present-day census would show the population to be well over 12,000. That as an industrial centre the town is remarkable for the production of agricultural implements, containing as it does three foundries for the manufacture of these articles. That at the present time, these Works have had to be closed down, owing to the fact that they are over-stocked, with the result that there are 1,750 workmen thrown idle, and have been for several months past, of these 960 are receiving Unemployment Benefit from the Labour Exchange, 500 have no further claim on the Exchange, and in addition to these there are 300 non-insurable cases of unemployment of workmen throughout the town.
That relief of privation in the form of employment is a pressing necessity. That Memorialists are seriously troubled in mind at the prospect before the town, as they have no means at their command to provide employment unless a sympathetic and paternal Government will come to their assistance. That reckoning on such assistance being forthcoming, Memorialists have engaged the services of a firm of Civil Engineers to make a report on the most efficient and economical means of increasing the water supply to the town, a very urgent and much-felt want, and these experts recommend that the storage capacity of the Reservoir should be increased from 22 million to 40 million gallons, that the cheapest way of doing this is by way of raising the height of the dam by somewhat over five feet, and thickening the embankment sufficiently to resist the consequential increase of pressure; that the cost of executing the requisite engineering works would be, approximately £8,500, and that it would be necessary also to purchase out two acres of land to be let in with the Reservoir. That Memorialists, in the exceptional circumstances of the case, hereby approach with confidence the Ministry for Local Government for a Grant of £10,000 for the relief of the unemployed, and submit that the money, by being applied to the purpose of affording a plentiful water supply, is certain to confer a lasting and never-to-be-forgotten favour on the town. And your Memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. The Corporate Seal of the Borough of Wexford affixed hereto, by direction of the Municipal Council this 21st day of April, 1922.—(Signed) R. Corish, Mayor of Wexford. W.A. Brownie, Town Clerk.