§ DR. KENNY (Cork, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Mr. P. J. Keenan was appointed paid Resident Commissioner of National Education (Ireland) in succession to the late Alexander M'Donnell, at a salary of £1,000 per annum; whether said salary was subsequently raised to £1,200 per annum; whether his predecessor, Mr. M'Donnell, had resided up to his decease in the 1396 official residence, Tyrone House, provided for the paid Resident Commissioner of National Education (Ireland); whether Mr. Keenan, having represented to the authorities that there was not sufficient accommodation in Tyrone House, the office of the National Board of Education (Ireland), for the clerical staff of the establishment, was permitted to reside off the premises, and was allowed by the Treasury £300 per annum for the rooms he relinquished; and if he will state on what grounds so large a sum was allowed for said rooms?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)Sir Patrick Keenan was appointed Resident Commissioner on precisely the same terms as his predecessor, the Right Hon. Sir Alexander M'Donnell—namely, £1,000 a-year, with furnished residence, fuel, light, &c., valued at £200 a-year. Sir Alexander M'Donnell had resided in the official residence up to his retirement, not to the date of his decease, which occurred some four years after. The allegation that Sir Patrick Keenan made any representation to the authorities on the subject of his official residence is without a particle of foundation. The Treasury, of their own accord, withdrew 15 years ago the residence, and granted in lieu thereof its money value—namely, £200 a-year, making a total allowance of £1,200 a-year. In the following year (1874), in accordance with a recommendation of the Treasury Departmental Committee of Inquiry into Public Offices, the salary was raised from £1,000 to £1,500 a-year, the allowance for a house of £200 a-year being at the same time abolished.
§ DR. KENNYasked, if Sir Patrick Keenan was given an increased salary because his services were so much more valuable than those of Sir Alexander M'Donnell?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe hon. Gentleman should ask the Departmental Committee of the Treasury, who decided to raise the salary—a Committee presided over by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid Lothian (Mr. W. E. Gladstone).