§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that the value of engineering stores used in Ireland in 1905 amounted to £11,500, of which only £500 was spent in Ireland, that nearly all the other Post Office stores used in Ireland are imported from Great Britain that the upkeep of the Irish portion of the-Post Office Savings Bank in London costs approximately £30,000 a year, that the Savings Bank deposits and withdrawals-in Ireland made through British deposits books amount approximately to only 1 per cent. of the total and vice versa, and that the present system is inconvenient to Irish depositors and less economical from a public point of view, he will consider the advisability of transferring to Dublin the Irish Savings Bank work which is now done in London.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I am not able to confirm the hon. Member's figures so far as they relate to the Post Office Savings Bank. The question of transferring to Dublin the administration of the Irish business of the Savings Bank has been considered on several occasions, and it does not appear that there would be any economy in keeping the Irish Savings Bank accounts in Dublin. I may point out that any inconvenience that may be caused to Irish depositors by the present arrangement has been much diminished by the system of withdrawal on demand for sums not exceeding £1.