asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state the number of road workers employed in County Wicklow in the last week in February in each of the years 1956 and 1957, and the number of engineers, permanent and temporary, and of clerical staff engaged under the road scheme at these times.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wicklow Road Schemes
As the information requested is in the form of a tabular statement, I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to have it circulated with the Official Report.
Following is the statement:—
Number of roadworkers employed by Wicklow County Council in the last week of February and the number of engineers and clerical staff engaged on engineering schemes on the same dates:—
|
1956 |
1957 |
|
|
Road Workers |
470 |
427 |
|
Permanent Engineers |
6 |
6 |
|
Clerical Staff(whole-time) |
6 |
6 |
|
Clerical Staff(part-time) |
3 |
3 |
The permanent engineers and the clerical staff are engaged on all engineering services including roads schemes. It is not possible to give the information in the precise form requested by the Deputy as the county is divided into districts in which the appropriate assistant county engineer deals with all engineering services. There were no temporary engineers engaged on roads schemes on the above dates.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state in respect of the year ended March, 1957 (1) the total sums allotted to Wicklow County Council in (a) grants from the Road Fund, and (b) sums provided from the rates; (2) the amount expended by the council on the hiring of machinery, and whether tenders were obtained; (3) the total amount paid for the hiring of lorries, and (4) the total number of lorries owned by the council.
I presume the Deputy is referring to sums provided for expenditure on road works. The total sum allocated to Wicklow County Council from the Road Fund for the year ended 31-3-57 was £133,362 and the total provided by the council from rates was £124,391. Information is not available in my Department regarding the other matters referred to by the Deputy.
Could the Minister not obtain the information from the county council, or is it that the Minister, like myself, objects to thousands of pounds being paid for hiring machinery when it could be used for giving employment to workers?
The Minister regards these matters as matters entirely for the council itself to decide.
Surely if the Department wrote to the county council, they would get the information?
Surely it is not the business of the Department to find out from each local authority what lorry, spade or other implements it intends to purchase for the purpose of carrying on its work?
The county council objects to giving such information to the Minister? Is that so?
I have not said so.
Or is he ashamed of such an amount of money being squandered on hiring machinery when they have the machinery available themselves?
The Deputy is a member of the county council and I suggest he should raise these matters at the meetings.
The Deputy has already raised this matter in the county council and protested against this expenditure.
The Deputy can always do it again.