asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will state the number of employees in the engineering branch of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs whose services have been dispensed with since the 1st September, 1939.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment in Department of Posts and Telegraphs.
The number of employees in the Post Office engineering branch whose services have been dispensed with since 1st September, 1939, is 36.
Arising out of the Minister's reply will he explain why, in view of the appeal made by the Taoiseach and other members of the Government to private employers to retain staffs during the emergency, he could not at least pay some honour to that appeal by retaining the staff of his own Department?
As a matter of fact, these men were retained during the emergency period until we saw how we could carry on on a normal basis. Their being out of employment now is ruled entirely by the fact that we have no work for them to do.
Is the Minister not aware of the fact that persons who want to have telephones installed to-day are experiencing delay in having them installed solely because of the fact that there are not sufficient men to carry out the work? Is he not aware of the further fact that many lines of communication throughout the country are very badly in need of repair and that many poles and connections are very badly in need of renewal? In view of these facts would he reconsider the discharge of these men?
That is a different question altogether. My information is that the normal work which has been plotted out for the year is such as to make it impossible for us to retain these 36 men in our employment at present.
Does the Minister realise that the dismissal of these 36 men in the engineering branch is directly contrary to the appeal made by the Taoiseach? If a Government Department feels that it can set that sort of headline to private employers, how does the Government expect private employers to listen to one word of the appeal made by the Taoiseach and other members of the Government?
I am not prepared to admit that our action was in any way contrary to the appeal. I am rather proud of the fact that we were able to keep these men from September to January over a period when, if we had acted strictly according to rule, we should have discharged them.
The Minister has given complete approbation to the dismissal of staff from his own Department. Does that not mean that a headline is set to private employers to dismiss their staffs if they wish to do so?
Remarks addressed to the Minister should be interrogatory.
I think an interrogatory has prefaced all my supplementaries.
It would be possible for a Deputy to make an hour's speech in interrogatory form.