asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state in respect of the year 1934 the number of persons in each county engaged under the Peat Scheme in the production and marketing of turf and the expenditure thereon borne out of public funds.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment Under Peat Scheme.
The information asked for by the Deputy is not available in my Department and its compilation would involve an amount of time and labour which would not, in my opinion, be justified by the result.
In view of the amount of State money which has been spent in encouraging the production of peat, I shall be glad to know if the Minister will try to give the House some reliable information as to the extent of the extra employment that has been given.
Persons are not employed by the State in the production of peat. Winning peat for sale was done mainly through the co-operative societies. The number of members in such societies is very nearly 11,000. But I could not say that all these members on these co-operative societies are, in fact, engaged in winning peat or that there are not other people employed winning peat.
I suggest to the Minister that some effort should be made to compile statistics showing the extent to which people are engaged in the production of peat. Since the Minister's own Department is engaged in spending money in winning peat for sale, I do not see why the Minister should not have this information available.
Will the Deputy appreciate that he is asking for information about additional employment in the production and marketing of peat? He will, I am sure, appreciate the difficulty of getting that information, having regard to the fact that the winning of peat for sale has been carried on for a very long time in this State.
But is it not possible for the Minister's Department to get some information from the peat co-operative societies and give the House that information?
The information available is as to the number of members of each of these co-operative societies, and I have given the Deputy that number—that they practically number 11,000.
Is the Minister satisfied that there is an adequate return for the public money spent on peat schemes?
There will be.
I should like to know how the Minister can arrive at that conclusion considering that he does not know how many extra people are employed?