§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Postmaster-General whether it is proposed to abolish the Irish Northern Engineering District, having its present headquarters at Belfast, and to remove the superintending engineer at that city and his staff to Dublin; if so, whether he will state the reason for the change, and will the Belfast staff be compensated for such enforced removal and for the increased cost of living in Dublin; will he say whether the major portion of the telegraph and telephone work in Ireland is carried on in the northern district; and, if so, will he reconsider any decision to abolish the Belfast headquarters, especially in view of the increase of telephone business which will be thrown on that district when the National Telephone Company's undertaking is absorbed in 1911.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) It is proposed to transfer the superintending engineer and his headquarters staff from Belfast to Dublin with the object of improving the administration generally. The officers will receive the same rates of pay as other officers stationed in Dublin, and their removal expenses will be paid in accordance with the usual scale. Dublin is the most important centre in Ireland for both telegraph and telephone work.