asked the Taoiseach the number of unemployed registered at Galway employment exchange for the week ended 2nd June, 1967.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Unemployed.
1.
The number of persons on the Live Register at Galway employment exchange on 2nd June, 1967 was 1,362.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary state if there is going to be an improvement on that?
I should, of course, explain to the Deputy that the figures for Galway——
That is not the question I asked.
I should explain to the Deputy, whose flair for exaggerated language is well known, that these figures represent persons within a radius of 20 miles of Galway. In Galway borough district itself, there are roughly 300 people unemployed.
I have not got the reply I asked for from the Parliamentary Secretary. Will there be an improvement on these figures in the future?
There could be, like the improvement in 1957 when the people were not there to sign at all because they were elsewhere.
On what grounds does the Parliamentary Secretary state that?
That does not arise on this question, which deals with the number of unemployed in Galway. That is all.
How many of the people registered as unemployed at the exchange were actually resident in Galway borough?
I have answered that.
How many of those in receipt of unemployment benefit now were not in receipt of it this time last year but are now in receipt of the small farmers' assistance because of the abolition of the Employment Period Order?
That is totally irrelevant.
Am I to take it from the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary, and the addition to it by Deputy Molloy, that it is not important if people are unemployed outside the borough?
Not at all.
It is totally irrelevant.
The Parliamentary Secretary's pupil slipped up and he is trying to straighten it out.
Irrelevant questions should not be answered.
I should explain——
(Interruptions.)
To those who will not believe no explanation is possible.
There are 167,000 fewer in employment today.
A total of 985 unemployment assistance smallholders sign at Galway employment exchange who were not signing this time last year because in the Budget provision was made for the abolition of the first Employment Period Order.
The farmers want fair play and justice, not doles or sops from anybody.