HC Deb 14 May 1907 vol 174 cc773-4
MR. FIELD

To ask the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that 99 per cent. of the manufactured stuff used in the Post Office in Ireland is not manufactured in Ireland, and that clerical work can be as efficiently and, having regard to the cost of housing accommodation, more economically performed in Dublin than in London, will he explain why all the paid Irish postal orders are sent to London for checking purposes.

(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I am having inquiry made in order to ascertain whether any part of the work of examining postal orders paid in Ireland could, with advantage, be performed in Dublin.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Postmaster-General whether he will state the annual income and the annual expenditure relating to the Post Office in Ireland for the past twenty years, and the approximate amount of this expenditure spent during each of those years on material imported into Ireland; whether the loss shown on the Irish Post Office is only a paper loss; and whether he will state the approximate annual profit on the Irish Post Office for the past twenty years when debited and credited with actual figures.

(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The annual income and expenditure relating to the Post Office in Ireland for the seventeen years from 1890 to 1906 were as follows:—

Year ended 31st March. Annual Income. Annual Expenditure.
£ £
1890 678,710 664,099
1891 701,049 688,978
1892 724,812 749,046
1893 734,889 772,300
1894 752,293 792,810
1895 763,647 801,561
1896 795,168 807,720
1897 809,000 823,000
1898 824,000 866,000
1899 846,000 943,000
1900 878,000 1,025,000
1901 903,000 1,061,000
1902 923,000 1,087,000
1903 960,000 1,140,000
1904 980,000 1,126,000
1905 1,002,000 1,172,000
1906 1,043,000 1,199,000

The above figures have been taken from the Financial Relations Returns, which were first compiled in 1890. The approximate expenditure in those years on material imported into Ireland for Post Office purposes cannot be stated. The annual loss shown on the Irish Post Office in the last fifteen years is not merely a paper loss, but the best available estimate of the financial results of the working of the Irish Post Office in those years.