After the debate we have had for the last few hours about the Central Bank and the state of the country's finances, I think it appropriate that we should pass on to another matter which is not of less importance, namely, the conditions under which agricultural labourers exist in this country to-day. The motion tabled by Deputy Dunne merely asks the House to give an expression of opinion as to what would be a proper wage for an agricultural labourer. For a couple of hours on last Wednesday night we had members of the Fianna Fáil Party, led by the Minister for Agriculture, trying to evade the issue, so much so that Deputy Davern was prompted to put down an amendment to the effect that the determination of a minimum wage for agricultural labourers is properly the job of the Agricultural Wages Board. If Deputy Davern, the Minister and other Deputies supporting the present Government believe that, they believe that a wage of £3 7s. 6d. per week is sufficient to enable an agricultural labourer to support himself, his wife and family. I do not think it improper for this House to express an opinion in regard to the wages of agricultural labourers because it would not be the first occasion upon which Deputies did express an opinion on matters in which they did not actually have a function.
It is not the function of this House to fix rates of wages for agricultural labourers but I think, in view of the increased prosperity enjoyed by the farming community for the last three or four years, that we should by adopting this motion express our disapproval of the attitude of the Agricultural Wages Board to a section of the community who have in times of emergency been described as the front line fighters in the battle to produce food.
The Minister may represent a very prosperous constituency, the home of many generous farmers. I do not know whether I heard him aright or not but, in any case, in reading the debate of last week I noticed that the Minister said that there are very few agricultural labourers working for the minimum wage and that he expressed amazement at a particular statement made by Deputy Dunne in respect of wages paid to agricultural labourers in County Wexford. I must say that I was more than amazed at the Minister's statement that very few farmers were paying the minimum wage and that the majority of them were paying more. I made it my business to make some inquiries in my constituency, not alone amongst the labourers themselves but also from some farmers, and the best that I could get from any farmer in Wexford was a statement to the effect that the maximum number paying £3 7s. 6d. per week or above that amount to their labourers, would be 10 per cent.
Wexford is no different from the majority of counties in this State. I asked a trade union organiser and he told me that there were few or none paying above the minimum rate of £3 7s. 6d. On the other hand, it is a fact, as I discovered during the week-end, that there was at least one agricultural labourer working for 15/- per week all found. The Minister says that is scandalous. He says that it is scandalous that there should be two Labour Deputies in County Wexford and that that position should still obtain. He must remember that we are slightly more active in Wexford in the Labour Party than he would give us credit for and that that particular farmer has been reported. That is an example to the Minister to show that the majority of employers, not alone in County Wexford or in Ireland, but the whole world over, will pay the lowest wage they can get away with.
There is not an abundance of generosity amongst employers generally when it comes to a question of wages and the Minister knows that as well as I do. I have yet to find an employer who would voluntarily call his workers together and say: "Well, we have good times for the last two years and I have decided to give you an increase of 5/- per week". The only way by which an improvement in working conditions could be secured was by action taken through the different organisations or trade unions. The Minister need not fret for the unfortunate individual who is getting only 15/- per week. All I urge him to do in that respect is to see that the inspector which the Agricultural Wages Board has been requested to send down, is sent down immediately.
We in my constituency are perfectly well aware of the attitude of Fianna Fáil so far as wages are concerned. It is the belief of Deputy Corry and of many others on the Government side of the House that farmers cannot afford an increase in wages and that the Labour Party will have to vote for an increase in the prices paid to farmers or for an improvement in their conditions before the farmers can afford to give any more than £3 7s. 6d. per week. I do not think that the Wexford County Council would be bankrupted if they were to pay their road workers and their drainage workers something more than is being paid at present but the attitude of the Fianna Fáil representatives on that county council when a wage demand is made on behalf of the road workers is summed up in "opposition, opposition" all the time. However, they cannot say in this House that the farmer cannot afford to pay his labourer more than £3 7s. 6d. per week because the county council can afford a better wage to their road workers and their drainage workers but Fianna Fáil votes prevent them from getting it.
I should also like to ask the House and particularly members of the Fianna Fáil Party why should we have these groups into which agricultural labourers are segregated. An agricultural labourer in Wexford is no different from an agricultural labourer in Wicklow, Laois, Offaly, Kerry, Limerick, Cork or any of these other counties where the Agricultural Wages Board have laid down a minimum wage in excess of £3 7s. 6d. per week. Agricultural labourers in Wexford have to feed and clothe their families just the same as agricultural labourers elsewhere and I cannot understand why they should have to suffer a reduction in their wages, as compared with labourers in other counties, varying from 2/6 up to 10/- or 15/- per week. Prices in Wexford are no different from prices in the counties I have mentioned.
Every farmers' representative who speaks about the wages of agricultural labourers thinks he has brought off a great coup when he talks about perquisites.
I have never seen an agricultural labourer coming home loaded down with what the farmer gives him in the way of potatoes, cabbage, milk or any other produce. That may have happened when there was a scandalously low wage, when wages were as low as 25/- or 20/- per week, as they were not so very long ago.