HC Deb 13 June 1907 vol 175 c1566
MR. J. DEVLIN (Belfast, W.)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a speech delivered by the Rev. David Purvis at a meeting of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, held in Belfast on 5th June, in which he stated that a buttonhole worker, whose eyesight was beginning to fail, earned only 5s. or 6s. a week; also that a smoother was paid at the rate of one penny per hour and that women earned only 6s. a week by finishing boys' ready-made clothes; and furthermore that the wages of women workers in the city ranged from 7s. to 10s per week of fifty-six or fifty-nine hours; whether the labour of women and girls is worse paid in Belfast than in any other city in the United Kingdom; and whether he will order a special inquiry into the subject, or will arrange for the Commission on Sweating, recently appointed to investigate it thoroughly on the spot.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) My attention has not been called to the speech referred to in the Question So far as home work is concerned, the question of the conditions of labour in those trades in which it is prevalent is as the hon. Member is aware, to be investigated by a Select Committee of this House, and I would suggest that he should bring any information he may have in his possession, which bears on the subject of the injury, to the notice of the Committee.