§ MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whether a candidate for the position of surveyor of buildings has to be nominated by the Board of Public Works, Ireland, before he can compete; whether nominations for those appointments are practically in the hands of the secretary; and whether he can explain how it happens that, out of a total staff of nineteen surveyors of buidings at present employed by this department, eighteen are of the same religious denomination.
588 (Answered by Mr. McKenna.) The reply to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative, to the second in the negative, the nominations are not in the hands of the Secretary but of the Commissioners, who personally examine into the qualifications of each candidate, and nominate several candidates for each vacancy. As regards the third part of the Question, the Board have no knowledge of the religious denomination of their surveying staff; they do not inquire into it.