§ MR. HEALYasked the Postmaster General, Whether the Inspector of Irish Mails has dismissed several Post Office mail guards, who, on being injured in railway accidents, have applied for compensation to the Railway Company; whether J. Coyne, who was injured on 28th October last, was not, after applying for compensation, allowed to resume 733 duty, while his colleague, J. Callanan, who did not seek compensation, was reinstated; whether J. Cunningham, who received a dislocation of the thumb on 10th May, and accepted fifty pounds from the Railway Company, was dismissed by the Mail Inspector when he heard of it, although Cunningham was not a day off duty; and, whether the Mail Inspector has any interest or shares in any Irish Railway?
§ MR. FAWCETT, in reply, said, the Inspector of Irish mails in Ireland had no power whatever to dismiss any person from employment. All he could do was to recommend or arrange for a transfer from one point to another. J. Coyne and J. Callanan both participated in the same railway accident on the 28th October last, but Callanan said that he was not hurt at all, and Coyne gave a very contradictory account of the accident. He was not dismissed. All that took place was this. Some time before he had been promised promotion on the distinct condition that he should give up his position in the travelling Post Office. He accepted promotion on that condition, and was promoted accordingly. With regard to another man named J. Cunningham, he (the Postmaster General) had not had time to investigate the case; but he would take care to make inquiries, and write to the hon. Member giving him the result. It seemed somewhat strange that a man who received £50 compensation for injuries should not have been one single day off work. He thought it would be incompetent of him to inquire whether the Mail Inspector in question held any shares in any Irish Railway unless some evidence was forthcoming, and he did not think there was any forthcoming, to show any partiality on his part whatever as regarded this case.