HC Deb 16 August 1901 vol 99 c1180
MR. NANNETTI

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if the recent Census appointments in the Registry of Deeds Office, Dublin, received the sanction of the Treasury Remembrancer; and if not, will they be submitted for his sanction; is he aware that boy writers are put into competition with men clerks, and that, as a result of this task work, the boys go for long periods without food, to the injury of their health; and will he consider the advisability of altering this system of working with the view of securing accuracy in these public reports.

MR. WYNDHAM

The department referred to is the office of the Registrar General. The number and rates of pay of the staff employed on the work of the Census have been fixed by the Irish Government and the Treasury, but the disposition of the staff is a matter entirely for the Census Commissioners. The boy copyists are not put into competition with men clerks. In no case has a boy employed on taskwork been permitted to work on the same after office hours, and all the boys are allowed the usual half-hour for lunch.