MR. UARRINGTON (Dublin, Harbour)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether certain Second Division 20 Clerks in the Registry of Deeds, who have been called on to discharge the higher duties of the office, have been recommended for promotion by the head of the Department; whether he is aware that the Royal Commissioners, who reported upon the office in 1881, bore testimony to the high class of duties performed by the officers of the Department, and expressed an opinion as to the fair remuneration of these officers, and recommended the amalgamation of the Second and Third Classes of the old establishment to secure it to them; also that the Treasury Committee of 1885 strongly urged the adoption of the recommendation of the Royal Commissioners, and that the amalgamation was approved by the Treasury and carried out; and whether, having regard to the remuneration for these duties then so fixed, and to the pledges given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and by himself on the 29th of March last, he will see that effect is given to the recommendation of the Department for the promotion of these clerks?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTThe duties of the clerical staff of the Registry of Deeds are such as are covered by the scale of salary of the Second Division and of staff officers of that Division. The old Upper Division establishment is, therefore, moribund, and no further appointments can be made thereto. It follows that the pledges of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and myself, to which the hon. Member refers, have no bearing on the present case.