Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 26 Nov 1936

Vol. 64 No. 7

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Payment of Wages on Relief Schemes.

asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that persons employed for two, three or four days on relief schemes administered out of grants made to county councils are required to wait for a fortnight before receiving payment, and whether having regard to the fact that those so employed are entirely dependent on such wages, he will instruct county councils to make provision for the payment of wages weekly in such cases, or devise other arrangements as will ensure weekly payment to the workers concerned.

I am aware that it is the general practice for county councils to pay their road workers fortnightly and that the councils propose to follow the same procedure in the case of road workers employed on a rotational basis. I am not empowered to instruct county councils in this matter which is one within their discretion.

Is the Minister not aware of the hardships inflicted upon unemployed men who are taken on such relief schemes for a period of two, three or four days? In the week in which they actually work, they receive no wages whatever, nor do they receive unemployment assistance during that week. In fact, very often they receive no unemployment assistance the following week, even if they are not employed. I would ask the Minister, therefore, whether he would not consider using such powers as he has to instruct county councils to pay this particular section of their staff each week, so that these men will at least have some income, either from wages or unemployment assistance, for the week in which they work.

Might I ask whether, if the Minister has no powers in the matter, he will make representations? Is the Minister aware that the men employed by the North Tipperary County Council on these schemes receive no wages for a month? Is the Minister also aware that they are deprived of unemployment assistance during that period if they are employed for two or three days per week and that their position is that they have no money from any source whatever?

In having these representations made to me, I bear in mind that both the Labour Party and Deputy Morrissey are well-known democrats who stand all the time for local authorities' autonomy in local affairs——

And efficiency.

——and they ask me now to direct them. When I do send down directions, as I have to as Minister from time to time, I can imagine the Deputies' followers in these local authorities saying "The idea of the Minister interfering in this matter. We have our own rights." I hope that as a result of the matter being raised here the attention of the local authorities will be called to the hardships that do exist, I believe, and that the local authorities will take note of them, but Deputies know that it is very difficult for a Minister to send a direction.

I am rather sorry the Minister has taken up this attitude but would he consider making representations? It need not be a direction. I am sure that if it were conveyed to a county council that it was the Minister's wish that a month should not elapse before these men received some payment, some arrangement would be made by the county council.

The Minister's reply does not deal with the point at issue at all. Nobody will complain of any instructions issued by the Minister to ensure that persons are paid weekly for the work they perform each week. If the Minister does not intervene in this matter, I am satisfied from the objections which would be put up by the finance committees of county councils and by county surveyors that these men will not be paid weekly. The Minister is, therefore, proposing to do nothing in a situation where relief workers work a week before Christmas, receive no wages that week and receive no unemployment assistance for that week. Surely a hardship of that kind should induce the Minister to issue an instruction in a matter of this kind? Instructions have been issued by the Minister in much less meritorious cases.

I do not think the Minister ever issued instructions in less meritorious cases than this. Deputies have their representatives on these local authorities and if they raise the matter there, I certainly would not object in any way if an arrangement were made. I, as Minister, will not object to any arrangement arrived at to see that these people are paid, but it is a matter for the local authorities. I dislike interfering with the economy of local authorities unnecessarily.

I wonder if the Minister, by virtue of his position as Minister, would write to county councils and inform them that this matter has been brought to his notice through the Legislature, that he personally has sympathy with the claim which has been put up and urge local authorities to consider the desirability of paying wages weekly? Surely that will not be dictation to the county councils, even though such dictation might be justified in this particular case.

Might I ask the Minister if a county council or its finance committee make representations to him with a view to having an impress account prepared to enable workers to be paid each week, will he give the necessary sanction to that arrangement?

I would not have any difficulty in giving sanction if the local councils make the necessary representations.

Barr
Roinn