MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, if he can state how many officials of the Post Office service have been appointed since 1st June, 1892, to situations in the Irish Post Office service carrying salaries in excess of £360 a year; and if he can also state how many Irish postal officials have been appointed during the same period to similar situations in the English postal service.
§ MR. HANBURYThe number of situations in the Post Office service in Ireland carrying salaries in excess of £360 a year to which appointments have been made since 1st June, 1892, is 32. By "Irish postal officials" the hon. Member is understood to mean officers employed in the Post Office in Ireland, and the number of these appointed during the same period to similar situations in the Post Office in England and Scotland is five.
MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as re- presenting the Postmaster - General, whether the situation of chief clerk and acting inspector of mails in the General Post Office, Dublin, with a salary rising from £600 to £800 a year, is expected to 1347 become shortly vacant; whether, in filling the anticipated vacancy, the qualifications of officers of the Irish branch of the service will be fully considered, and, if these qualifications be found equal to those of other officers not connected with the Irish service, the Irish officers will have the first claim to the vacant appointment; and whether, in view of the discontent existing throughout the Irish Post Office service at the non-promotion of deserving Irish officers to the higher situations in Ireland, the Postmaster-General will lay upon the Table of the House the entire papers on which these appointments have been made since 1st June, 1892.
§ MR. HANBURYThe answer to the first and second paragraphs of the hon. Member's question is in the affirmative. The Postmaster-General is not prepared to lay upon the Table of the House the papers to which reference is made. Such papers must necessarily be treated as confidential.