§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)I beg to ask the Postmaster General if higher scales of pay and higher positions have been abolished or reduced anywhere else in the Kingdom but Dublin by the recent revision of sorting offices generally; and, if so, to what extent as compared with Dublin; on what grounds the abolition has been made, in face of the immense increase of the quantity and quality of the things carried by the Post Office; when and why the abolished or reduced higher scales of pay and higher positions were established or last raised; and whether, and, if so, how, it is proposed to compensate those officers whose prospects have been injured by this revision?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONThe Dublin postal and telegraph establishment has recently been revised in order to bring it into line with other establishments of the same class in the United Kingdom. The old establishment at Dublin was irregular and anomalous—e.g., the chief supervision of the telegraph duties being relegated to officers belonging to the postal branch, and in other respects. Under the changes of classification thus carried out, the staff generally have obtained material advantages in pay and propects of promotion; and everything possible has been done to preserve the interests of the few officers who received no immediate benefit from the revision by allowing them to retain their old scales. Of course, no reduction has been made in the pay of any officer in consequence of these changes.