asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that considerable hardship is caused to employees of county councils who are often required to wait for three weeks for their wages, and whether he will issue instructions to local authorities to have such wages paid each week so as to avoid hardship to the workmen concerned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wages of County Council Employees.
I have received no representations that would lead me to believe that there is any undue hardship under the present system of payment of road workers. Only in one instance am I aware has a county council made a change and in that particular case I am not satisfied that the change is giving general satisfaction. I do not propose to issue any recommendation for weekly payments.
If the Minister receives representations from employees of local authorities, will he make the change suggested, and is he not aware, from his own discussions with the employees of local authorities, that they would very much prefer to be paid weekly than to be paid every three weeks?
There would be very considerable difficulty in that, because it would mean that the county surveyors would have to be brought in for two days a week to make up the sheets and to check up gangers' returns. It would certainly add considerably to the cost of the engineering staff to make this change. However, any representations made can be considered.
The Minister will deal then with the representations?
I will have them examined.
The Minister knows that the largest local authority in the country, the Dublin Corporation, pays its employees weekly.