§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how the £250,000 allocated some time ago under the scheme of reconstruction to provide employment for ex-Service men and munitions workers has been utilised; whether he is aware that in the town of Arklow, county Wicklow, there were over 150 ex-Service men and 1,000 munition workers employed who are now thrown out of work owing to the closing down of Kynoch's factory; whether he is aware that the Local Government Board have repeatedly condemned the insanitary conditions prevailing in Arklow, but that, owing to the great cost of a new sanitation scheme and the lost valuation of the town, the local authority are unable to carry out the new work necessary; and whether he will consider the claim of the town of Arklow to a substantial grant Out of this money allocated for reconstruction purposes to provide employment for the workers, numbering between 2,000 and 3,000, who have been thrown out of employment by the closing down of the munitions factory?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThe grant of £250,000 was voted by Parliament to provide employment on reproductive works of general utility for discharged soldiers and sailors in Ireland. The Ministry of Labour inform me that there are some 110 ex-soldiers who are out of work in Arklow, but that they are unable to say what proportion of these men are ex-employés of Kynochs, and that, of civilians who are entitled to unemployment benefit as insured workers (in which munition workers are included), there are 333 in Arklow. The statement as to the insanitary conditions in Arklow and the numbers recently employed at Kynochs is substantially correct, but the works suggested for Arklow were not such as the Departments concerned in the expenditure of the grant of £250,000 could have undertaken.