The tramway system in Cork city was worked and operated as a part of the undertaking of the Cork Electric Supply Co., Ltd., which owned and operated both a tramway undertaking and the business of generating electricity for consumers in the City of Cork. While the company, as a whole, operated successfully up to the time of the acquisition of its electricity undertaking by the Electricity Supply Board, the tramway, which was not operated by the Electricity Supply Board, did not prove correspondingly successful from the financial point of view, and had, in fact, been carried on to some extent out of the resources provided by the lighting side of the business. Consequently, on the taking over of the lighting undertaking by the Electricity Supply Board the tramway undertaking would have been closed down had not the Irish Omnibus Co., Ltd., made arrangements to operate the tramway system for a period of six months to the 30th September, 1931. It was the intention of the Irish Omnibus Co., Ltd., to acquire in the meantime an adequate fleet of omnibuses to provide the necessary services on the withdrawal of the trams. The trams ceased to run on the 30th September, 1931, and since then omnibus services have been provided by the Irish Omnibus Co,. Ltd. At a meeting held on the 23rd August, 1932, the Cork Borough Council opposed a resolution which proposed, amongst other things, that the Council should be authorised, for the purpose of providing a moiety of the compensation, to levy a special rate to produce a sum not exceeding £1,500 per annum for 20 years. The Minister for Local Government and Public Health did not raise any objection, and the Minister for Industry and Commerce was satisfied that in the exceptional circumstances of the case special consideration should be given to the question of endeavouring to provide compensation for those men. It was accordingly decided that compensation should be granted, the amount necessary to provide compensation to be borrowed from the Central Fund and to be repaid in annual instalments over a period of 20 years, one half by the Cork City Council and the other half by the Electricity Supply Board. The arrangement that was come to was that those who were not less than 50 years of age or who had not less than 15 years continuous service on the 30th September, 1931, should be granted compensation. If any question should arise as to the allocation of the compensation within these terms it is provided that an advisory committee be set up by the Minister for Industry and Commerce consisting of three members to be nominated by the Minister, two members of the Cork Borough Council and two members of the Electricity Supply Board.
It is necessary, therefore, to provide for legislation to enable the funds to be advanced, to authorise the Cork Borough Council and the Electricity Supply Board respectively to provide for the repayment of any moneys so advanced, and for other objects of an incidental character. It is estimated the amount required to provide for compensation on the foregoing basis will be about £36,000. A contribution of, roughly, £1,500 per year from the Cork Corporation and the same sum from the Electricity Supply Board will cover the required amount. I should explain that originally the intention of the Minister was that this compensation should be given only to employees who had over 15 years completed service, but subsequently, owing to further representations being made, the number of years was reduced to 12. I think that is the limit to which we ought to be asked to go in this matter, because the case is quite exceptional. No other class of persons who were disemployed indirectly as a result of the operations of the Electricity Supply Board have been given compensation.
Compensation has been restricted under statutory conditions to persons who were employed directly in the generation of electricity and whose undertakings were taken over by the Electricity Supply Board. Although the Cork tramways services were run under a local electricity company, to a certain extent the business was separate and there is the point which I have indicated that in any event the service would probably have closed down. The point which appealed to the Minister and the Executive Council in providing compensation in these special cases was that these tramway employees, after a long period of service, often find themselves in a position that they cannot obtain other employment. What is more serious, they are not, if they have spent a long period of service on the trams, able to undertake the ordinary work which they would get. The Cork Corporation and Cork citizens generally, having asked that we should get the Electricity Supply Board to make this contribution, it was that consideration that prompted us to make this arrangement. The total number of employees of the Cork tram service was 184. The number over 50, or with 12 years' service and upwards, is 109. There is still a small number outside.