§ MR. T. D. SULLIVAN (Donegal, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether there is either rule or practice at present in the Post Office Department by which candidates for the position of sorter or telegraph learner in head provincial offices, who at their first examination do not gain the minimum percentage for appointment, are excluded from ever again being admitted to examination; whether a similar rule prevails in any other branch of the public service; and whether arrangements will be made in this Department, as in all other branches of the Civil Service, to admit candidates within the prescribed limits of age irrespective of previous failures at examinations.
§ MR. HANBURYWhere positions as sorters or learners in the Post Office service are offered as the result of open Competition, competitors who have been unsuccessful are allowed to compete again so long as they are within the limits of age. There are, however, chiefly at the smaller offices, posts which are filled by nomination subject to a qualifying Civil Service examination, and persons who have received nominations, but reach such a low standard in the examination that their ultimate success is improbable, are not as a rule allowed to try again, it being in their own interests that they should at once seek more suitable employment.