asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he can state if the Sligo Board of Health and Public Assistance, at their meeting on the 12th March, 1929, granted an increase of salary at the rate of £30 per annum to their house steward, said increase to be retrospective for a period of two years; if he will give the number and names of the members who attended this meeting, and if he can state whether this matter was placed on the agenda for consideration by the entire Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sligo Official's Salary.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The remaining parts of the question should be addressed to the Sligo Board of Health and Public Assistance.
Is the Minister aware that this increase was granted to the house steward, although no notice of the matter appeared on the agenda which was submitted to the members before the meeting, and, in view of the fact that the matter was not put on the agenda for consideration by the entire Board, is the Minister prepared to give his sanction to this increase?
So far as the question of giving sanction arises, the matter has not yet received consideration, but it will be duly considered.
Is it the practice of the Department of Local Government to sanction an increase of salary to any official when notice of such proposal has not been put on the agenda?
I would say, from a commonsense point of view, that if a resolution is passed by a local body such resolution is and must be taken by the Department as having been passed in due course. If there is anything wrong, I take it that it is the responsibility of the local body to see that anything that is wrong is rectified and that a decision is not taken by the Department on wrong grounds. The Deputy will understand that I have stated "speaking simply from a commonsense point of view." We cannot write to a local body to know if such and such a matter was on the agenda, and whether this and that have been taken into consideration. An increase has been recommended, and such matters as are relevant to that increase will be taken into consideration by the Department. Questions such as the Deputy raises on the matter here are not questions which should be addressed to the Minister, but to the local body.
The agenda which was sent out contained certain items, but none of these dealt with an increase of salary. Ten members compose the Board of Health, but only four attended the meeting. One of the four, Mr. Gallagher, the Chairman, proposed and Alderman Jinks seconded the motion.
Then it must be right.
As I say, notice was not given to the other members. What I want to get from the Minister is an answer as to whether that increase will be sanctioned by him even in view of the fact that the resolution was seconded by John Jinks.
The Deputy has put to me no such question, and I suggest that it is farcical for the Chairman of the Sligo County Council to put down a question to be answered through the medium of the Oireachtas which he ought to address to the Board of Public Health in his own county, a Board which is practically a sub-committee of his Council.
I have put down a question for reply which I submit the Minister has not answered. I have asked the Minister to give the number and names of the members who attended the meeting, and to state whether the matter of an increase in salary was placed on the agenda for consideration by the entire Board. The Minister has not answered that portion of the question, and I submit that he has not a complete answer.
The trouble is that the Minister need not give a complete answer. If the Deputy wants information as to sanctioning the increase he ought to put down a separate question.
I want to know definitely from the Minister, as there has been a precedent for this in Sligo in recent years, whether he is prepared to sanction the increase of salary, notice of which was not given to the members.
The Deputy can put that question down separately.
I submit that it arises out of this.
It is a different matter.