asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state in relation to both married and single men at each exchange (a) the number of unemployed who since February 28th, 1950, have been offered employment in Counties Kildare and Offaly by the Dungloe, Dunfanaghy and Killybegs employment exchanges; (b) the number who accepted the offer, and (c) the number who as a result of their inability to accept this employment have been deprived of their unemployment assistance.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Numbers Offered Employment at Exchange.
It is assumed that the Deputy's question refers to vacancies for turf workers notified to my Department by Bord na Móna in connection with their hostel schemes in Kildare and Offaly. Vacancies on these schemes are not offered to married men, but only to suitable single men on the unemployed register who are without dependents. The number of such men to whom the employment was offered by the Dungloe, Dunfanaghy and Killybegs local offices of my Department since the date in question, is 863, 327 and 252, respectively. The number at each of those offices who accepted the offer of work is seven, one and one respectively. None of these applicants has been deprived of unemployment assistance as a result of inability to accept the employment. The numbers of them whose applications have been disallowed in accordance with the provisions of the Unemployment Assistance Acts on the ground that they were unable to obtain suitable employment were 623, 219 and 203 respectively.
May I ask the Minister to bear in mind that the figures given in reply to section (a) of the question are considerably inflated by the inclusion of idle fishermen? These men are interested in fishing and do not know anything about turf production.
Only single men between the ages of 18 and 55 who are considered suitable for employment in turf production are employed by the Turf Development Board. In other words, only people with some knowledge of turf production are employed.