§ MR. HAYDEN (Roscommon, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the position of clerks to surveyors of taxes, having regard to the fact that they have responsible public duties to discharge 1070 and are paid out of public funds, but have no fixity of tenure and no rights of pension.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe question of the organisation of the offices of surveyor s of taxes is being considered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and whether the employment of a larger proportion of established officers would be conducive to efficiency. As regards the pay and prospects of clerks at present employed in an unestablished capacity, I have no reason for thinking that their position compares unfavourably with that of persons engaged on similar terms upon the same class of work in other Government Departments.
§ MR. C. E. PRICEinquired if members of the engineering staff who were sometimes employed in a like capacity received pensions while the men referred to in the Question did not?
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe circumstances of the two staffs are not on the same lines, and I am afraid therefore a comparison is not possible.