§ MR. HARRINGTONasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is the fact that the task writers attached to the staff of the Registrar General's Office, Dublin, lost at least £60 a-year each when the Departments ceased to classify the agricultural holdings for the statistical Returns, and that nothing has been done by way of making good this loss; whether the employment given to 1327 the task writers now is scarcely more than nominal, and that one of them lately was obliged to seek refuge in a charitable asylum, whilst the four remaining task writers attached to the permanent staff of the office are left without employment and the means of self-support; and, whether the classification of agricultural holdings will be resumed, or whether all the task work of the office will be given to the task writers, or they he employed as copyists in the office, or some measure be adopted to provide employment for these four public servants, who, after very many years of connection with the Department, are in danger of utter penury?
§ MR. COURTNEY, in reply, said, it was not a fact that the task writers in the case referred to had lost £60 a-year by the change made. In fact, they had received quite as much as they received for the past 10 years. One of them lost some work because he was incompetent to do it. It would not be advisable to create work for the task writers in order to give them employment. He was sure they got all the task work there was in the office, and that the Registrar General had done all he could to alleviate their position, and it was through his personal exertions that one of them was placed in the asylum referred to.