§ MR. J. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he can state the names of the Irish firms which secured the contracts for headdresses £1,000, mail bags £1,200, and cycle parts £1,500, spent in Ireland during 1907–8.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I am sorry to find that I was in error in telling the hon. Member that £1,000 was spent in Ireland on head-dresses in 1907–8. The fact is that only one Irish firm responded to the invitation to tender and their tender was received too late. 1445 The head-dresses were supplied from England. The mail-bags were made by prison labour and the £1,200 paid to the Irish Prisons Board. The £1,500 for bicycle parts, etc., was spent locally in small sums by postmasters and engineers.
§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that Irish manufacturers are practically precluded from tendering for Post Office stores by reason of the fact that they are obliged to send such stores to London for inspection, thus necessitating the employment of agents to look after there interests; and whether, in view of public opinion in Ireland, he will state what steps he proposes to take.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I stated on 9th August last, in reply to the hon. Member for the St. Patrick Division of Dublin, that, as regards certain stores, tenders were for delivery in Dublin. I am not aware of any necessity for the employment of agents even when Irish manufacturers deliver goods in London. The supply of linen linings for uniforms, for instance, is practically monopolised by firms in Ireland, but no difficulty rendering the employment of a London agent necessary has ever arisen.
§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Postmaster-General whether he proposes to act on the recommendations of the Hobhouse Committee that increased powers should be delegated to the Dublin Office; and, if so, whether he will include in such powers the right to arrange for contracts for Irish stores without the intervention of London officials, subject to the restriction that the cost must not be greater than that of the same articles in England.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The question of delegation of powers to the local secretaries in Scotland and Ireland and to the surveyors and postmasters is under the consideration of a Departmental Committee. I should not, in any case, be willing to divest myself of the personal control which I exercise over the conditions and allocation of the more important store contracts.