22. Mr. NUGENTasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether twenty aged men employed in the Registrar-General's Office, Dublin, at recruiting work at 30s. a week were locked out for eight days, 25th April to 4th May, 1916; whether the Recruiting Department refused to pay the men for the time they were locked out; and, having regard to the fact that every employer in Dublin paid his employés for the week absent under similar circumstances, he will now direct that these men be paid what is due to them; also whether these men are entitled 824 to the war bonus paid to other men in the various recruiting offices employed at similar work?
§ Mr. DUKEI am informed that these men were employed by the hour and not by the week, and that any of them who attended at the office on any day during the period mentioned received a full day's pay. The men were not en titled to the payment of a war bonus, which did not come into operation until the following July.