asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will recommend that men who served in our mercantile marine during the emergency be placed on the same footing as members of the Defence Forces and auxiliary defence services as regards appointments in the service of the Government and of local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mercantile Marine Service.
When the Government decided in 1945 that concessions should be made to enable persons who were being demobilised from the Defence Forces to secure employment in the service of the State and of local authorities, these concessions were limited to persons who had joined the Defence Forces during the emergency and served until demobilisation. The intention was to assist such persons, many of whom had given more than five years of their lives to the service of the State, in securing civilian employment on their discharge from the Army. Limited concessions on the same lines were made to persons who had served in the auxiliary defence organisations during the emergency.
In appreciation of the services which the men who served in the mercantile marine during the emergency rendered to the community under conditions of grave danger and severe hardship, I am prepared to ask the Government to give sympathetic consideration to the possibility of having the concessions in question extended to them.