§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he has had under consideration the fact that an assistant clerk in the General Valuation Office, Dublin, with reference to whose proposed promotion the Treasury have decided to take no action until a second-division vacancy to which he 380 could be appointed occurs in that or some other office, has no prospect, if this decision is adhered to, of obtaining such promotion for several years; whether he is aware that no vacancy will occur in the normal course in the Valuation Office for over ten years, and that the heads of other departments have expressed their natural unwillingness to accept him as a second-division clerk 381 in view of the claims to promotion of assistant clerks belonging to their own staffs; and whether he is willing, as a solution to the matter, to sanction the issue of a certificate of qualification to the official in question, he then to wait, with the other candidate second division clerks on the books of the Civil Service Commissioners, an appointment as a second-division clerk in any Dublin office to which ho may he assigned by the Commissioners.
§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the ratio existing between the number of second-division clerks and of assistant clerks employed in the General Valuation Office, Dublin, has remained constant for some years; whether in the meantime the volume and importance of the work of this department have considerably increased, especially as regards the better-class clerical work; whether he is aware that an assistant clerk in this office, who is acknowledged to be engaged on work of a superior class, and has consequently been recommended for promotion to the second division, is obliged to wait till a vacancy in this grade occurs in the normal course before this recommendation is considered: and whether, considering that such a vacancy will not arise under ordinary conditions for several years, and that this clerk must naturally look for promotion in the office to which he is at present assigned, he will adjust the ratio of the clerical staff in accordance with the development of the work of the office.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I have no information as to when a second-division vacancy might occur in the Valuation Office or some other department to which the assistant clerk referred to could be appointed; but I do not consider it practicable to follow the course suggested by the hon. Member. The Treasury has not received any representation from the Commissioner of Valuation to the effect that the number of second-division clerks in the department is inadequate for the performance of the duties assignable to that class.