§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether attendants and porters in the Dublin Museum, and the gatekeeper in the Botanic Gardens, Dublin, appointed before the date of a Treasury letter of the 20th June 1890, are only admitted to pensions on submitting to reductions if service previous to 1st April, 1891, is to count towards pensions, or on foregoing all service previous to 1st April, 1891, the subsequent service only to count towards pensions; whether, before the issuing of this Minute, it was distinctly understood that these officials, having passed the examinations of the Civil Service Commissioners, were entitled to pensions without reductions, and that one man, Mr. John Redding, who was appointed under these conditions, was in receipt of pension without any deduction until his death; whether, since the said Treasury letter, several attendants have been appointed who are entitled to pension without deductions being made from their pay, and that a newly 548 appointed attendant, when he attains the maximum rate of pay accruing to his class, is in a better position as regards pay than the attendant with much longer service; and whether, having regard to the fact that only a small number of persons are subject to these disadvantages, an arrangement will be made whereby all the porters and attendants in the Dublin Museum, and the gatekeeper of the Botanic Gardens, Dublin, will be placed under equal conditions with respect to pension and increase of pay?
§ MR. HANBURYThe conditions on which these persons acquired a right to pension in 1891 are as stated. Previously they had no such right. Their case is not the same as that of Redding, who entered the service as porter under the Royal Dublin Society. Persons appointed since 1891 receive reduced rates of pay, as a condition of acquiring the right to pension. The existing arrangement applies to numerous persons in the service of the Science and Art Department in London and Edinburgh; it was settled after very full consideration by the Government in Office at the, time, and I can hold out no prospect of its being altered.