asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is prepared to permit the grant of a bonus increase, similar to that recently granted to civil servants, Gárdaí and teachers, to workmen and officials of every description, including roadmen, employed by local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Authorities Employees' Bonus.
asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state when he proposes to issue Orders authorising the payment to officials of local authorities of the revised emergency bonus as sanctioned and paid to civil servants from 1st January, 1946.
I propose to take these two questions together. Except in a few instances I have had no indication that the local authorities feel that circumstances warrant an increase in the remuneration paid to their employees. Bearing in mind the heavy increases in expenditure for which most local authorities will have to budget in the coming year, and the substantially increased burdens on the ratepayers which higher rates would necessarily involve, proposals to increase these burdens would have to be most carefully considered.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary admit that officials of local authorities have been granted this increase, and that in one particular instance the county manager said he would grant the increase to road workers and every type of worker, but that the Department would not sanction it? Is that true?
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if, in fact, a number of recommendations have been received from county managers in respect of this particular bonus, and what action it is proposed to take in the Department in respect of these recommendations. The matter is urgent in view of the fact that the estimates in a case of these local authorities will have to be prepared within a very short time. Unless the amounts of the increases are sanctioned they cannot be paid at a later stage.
All that I can say is that the Minister has received representations from eight local authorities, and I must repeat again that he will have to consider this matter most carefully. It is impossible for me to say any more about it at the present time.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if the position is to be that the lowest paid people in the State who are on £2 a week will not be granted an emergency bonus? County councillors all over the country have been advocating the granting of this bonus. Will the Parliamentary Secretary state why these men are to be tied down to £2 a week in view of the present cost of living?
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say, in view of his statement that local authorities will have to provide for a very large increase in taxation in the coming year, whether he proposes to issue a statement on that indicating the nature of the headings for that proposed increased expenditure, and the purposes to which it is to be devoted?
I am not able to say if any such statement will be issued. I must again repeat that the Minister will consider the proposals in the light of the heavy expenditure to be incurred in the coming year by the local authorities.
The Parliamentary Secretary has already stated that there will have to be a very heavy increase in taxation imposed by the local authorities in the coming year.
Previously, the Minister stated that this was a matter for the local authorities. Now, when the managers recommend it the Minister refuses to sanction it, while at the same time a bonus of 15/- a week has been sanctioned to State servants with £500 a year. Is the position this, that road workers are not even entitled to even 2/- increase?
Would it be possible for the Parliamentary Secretary to give the names of eight local authorities which he stated had submitted recommendations to the Minister for sanction?
I have not the information. It is a separate question.