HC Deb 17 November 1884 vol 293 cc1847-8
MR. WILLIAM REDMOND

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Irish Government is aware that James B. M'Connell, Petty Sessions Clerk of Dromore, county Down, was adjudicated a bankrupt; and, whether, under these circumstances, it is in accordance with the rules of the Civil Service to retain him in his position?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

Mr. M'Connell became a bankrupt between eight and nine years ago. The fact of his bankruptcy came at the time under the notice of the Government of the day. Petty Sessions clerks, who are not, strictly speaking, Civil servants, and are not paid out of Imperial funds, were not then treated as within the spirit of the Civil Service Rule as to bankruptcy. The bankruptcy proceedings ended in the appropriation of £40 a-year from salary to the creditors, and the clerk's dismissal now would deprive them of the instalments which continue to be paid by this appropriation. This would make a retrospective application of the Civil Service Rule in this case very unjust.