asked the Minister for Defence whether he is aware that shop assistants employed in the canteens, grocery and coffee bars in military barracks and camps in the Saorstát complain that they are deprived of the weekly half-holiday as provided for by the Shops Acts (Chapters 3 and 24) of 1912; whether he is aware that the notice in the prescribed form as provided for in sub-section 2 of Section 1 and Clause 3 of the Fifth Schedule of the above Act is not affixed in any of the establishments mentioned; whether these assistants are working from seventy to one hundred hours per seven-day week without any relay of staff, and whether he will have inquiries made in the case with a view to enforcing the provisions of the Shops Acts.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - HOURS OF CANTEEN ASSISTANTS.
I am not aware of the matters mentioned by the Deputy. Section 13 of the Shops Act, 1912, provides that it shall be the duty of local authorities to enforce the provisions of the Act. I am prepared to facilitate those authorities in the matter.
Has the Minister no control over the barracks and camps throughout the Saorstát, and is it not his duty to see that outside men employed in these barracks and camps are getting decent conditions of employment, especially those who have to reside in the camps and who are working such long hours?
The matter of decent conditions is one upon which a variety of opinions could be held. The Deputy has asked a specific question about the Shops Acts. The enforcement of the regulations, or of the Shops Acts themselves, lies with the local authority and not with the Minister for Defence.
Have the local authorities power to apply the Shops Acts to shops inside barracks and camps?
If they have not, the Shops Acts do not apply.
Then decent conditions do not apply to people employed inside barracks and camps?
The Deputy is now getting at the other side of decent conditions. We will have to get a new definition of decent conditions from the Deputy.
Are military camps immune from the law?
Oh, not at all.
Then it applies to them.
Deputy Colohan thinks not.