§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state in how many instances the salaries of the veterinary branch clerks of the Irish Agricultural Department have been reduced since the inception of that Department; for what reason the reductions, if any, were made; and whether the clerks employed by the Irish Agricultural Department have suffered thereby.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) Four temporary clerks in the veterinary branch, 34 with pay at the fixed rate of £1 15s. a week, on being appointed over three years ago to permanent pensionable posts as assistant clerks of the abstractor class, entered the scale of salary for that grade at £90 a year, rising by annual increments of £2 10s. to £120, and thence by £5 to £150. The initial salary of £90 was determined in accordance with the practice of requiring a reduction of commencing salary in consideration of the grant of the privileges of a secured position, an annual increment, and a retiring pension. This reduction was for one year, the actual amount being £1 5s. per annum. Afterwards the salary was increased in accordance with the scale of increments named.