§ MR. NANNETTII beg to ask the Postmaster-General will be state what system is adopted when selecting men for clerical duties in the Post Office, Dublin; is he aware that some of those employed upon writing duties in the Controller's Office and in the sorting office have but a few years service, and took comparatively low places in the entrance examinations; can he state what special qualifications these men possess; and, seeing that clerical work is a necessary qualification for promotion, and that men have been debarred from promotion because they did not qualify in clerical duties which they were not allowed to perform, will he see that every officer is afforded an opportunity of performing writing duties.
LORD STANLEYThe officers are selected on the reports of their superior officers as to their intelligence, zeal, and general good conduct, and not with regard to the place they obtained in their entrance examination. Two or three of the officers employed on writing duties are comparatively junior and they are employed on duties of a routine and minor character. All that is possible is done to give officers who are in any way fit for promotion opportunities of qualifying, but it would not be possible to test all the officers in the sorting office on writing duties. Experience in such duties is not an essential qualification for promotion.