MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, will he explain why, although there are several thoroughly efficient and well-conducted officers in the Secretary's Office, General Post Office, Dublin, a London official has been lately appointed to a superior position in that office: could he state how many superior positions in the Post Office Department have been filled during the past five years by the introduction of English officials, and what is the pay attached to the situations so filled; and whether, during those five years, any 1367 officers of the Secretary's office in Dublin were appointed to superior positions in the London Secretary's office?
§ MR. HANBURYThe hon. Member no doubt refers to the recent appointment of Mr. Taylor, a clerk in the Secretary's Office, London, to fill a vacancy on the first class in the Secretary's Office, Dublin. The post to which Mr. Taylor was appointed required an officer of special knowledge and experience, which no officer on the Dublin establishment happened to possess. During the past five years, four officers from England have been appointed to superior positions in Ireland—namely: One to be secretary, salary £1,000, rising to £1,200 a year. One to be examiner in the Accountants' Office, salary £440, rising to £540 a year. Two to be surveyors, salary £500, rising to £800 a year. No officers of the Secretary's Office in Dublin have been transferred during the same period to the Secretary's Office in London; but the Secretary in Dublin has been transferred to Edinburgh. One surveyor has been transferred to England, and one assistant surveyor has been appointed to an important Postmastership.
MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether it is the fact that no officer of the Secretary's Department in the General Post Office in Dublin has been promoted to the higher grade of the Second Division, under the terms of the Order in Council of March, 1890; and whether any recommendations for such promotions were at any time made by the Dublin postal authorities?
§ MR. HANBURYIt is a fact that no clerk of the second division, employed in the Secretary's Office in Dublin, has been promoted to the higher grade of that division, because, under the provisions of the Order in Council to which the hon. Member refers, a vacancy on the higher grade occurs only when a clerk 1368 reaches a salary of £250 a year, and no one of the second division clerks in the office has attained to a salary of that amount. In these circumstances, any recommendations for such promotions would be premature.