§ MR. M. BROOKSasked the Postmaster General, If his attention has been called to the Petitions of the Dublin Telegraph Staff, forwarded in the years 1873, 1874, 1876, 1877, and 1879 respectively, to the Postmaster General, praying that they should be 1195 placed on the same footing as regards salaries with the Liverpool and Manchester Telegraph Offices; and to the reply given by the late Postmaster General in August last in this House, that the Dublin Telegraph Staff would be placed at least on the same footing as the Manchester Office; and, if he can state when the claims of the Dublin Telegraph staff will be finally decided, and effect given to the promise of the late Postmaster General?
§ MR. FAWCETTSir, on referring to the answer given by the noble Lord my Predecessor in Office, I find the hon. Member has somewhat misunderstood the purport of that answer. So far as I am able to understand it, he did not give any pledge that he would place all the telegraphists of the Dublin office in the same position as those of Manchester and Liverpool; but his promise simply referred to the lower class of officers. The superintending officers have not such onerous duties at Dublin as at Manchester or Liverpool, as there are only 180 people employed in Dublin to 350 or 300 at Manchester and Liverpool respectively. But in promising that he would place the lower class in a position of equality with those at Manchester and Liverpool, this promise was given with a qualification that there was at that certain time a redundancy of officers in the lower offices, and that the salaries would not be revised until that redundancy had been worked off. It has been almost entirely worked off, and I hope shortly to be able to make a recommendation on the subject of the revised salaries.