asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will take steps to increase the wages of the agricultural labourers employed by the Munster Agricultural Institute, Cork, to the same level of those paid at the Albert Agricultural College, Dublin, and also to grant the same working conditions, namely, a fifty-hour working week, a weekly half holiday, one week's annual leave with pay, and church and bank holidays with pay.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employees of Munster Agricultural Institute.
The rates of wages and conditions of employment of the labourers at the Munster Institute, Cork, are related to the rates, etc., for agricultural workers fixed by the Agricultural Wages Board for agricultural labourers in the locality, and I do not propose to depart from this arrangement. The workers employed at the Munster Institute have been paid a higher rate than the minimum fixed from time to time by the board in respect of this locality.
Will the Minister, in view of the fact that the workers engaged on agricultural work in the Albert College in Dublin are treated on the basis of being workers in a model college, and in view of the fact that the workers of the Munster Institute, Cork, are in a like capacity, workers on a model farm, not agree that they should be treated on the same basis? Will the Minister give further consideration to this question?
I can assure the Deputy that is a question that is continually under the Minister's review. My aim is to make every institution operated by the Department of Agriculture a model institution, from his point of view as well as from every other point of view.