§ Mr. FIELDasked the Postmaster-General if any representations have been received from the Dublin General Post Office that the housing of many of the Post Office Departments in Dublin is inadequate; whether any proposals for improving the housing are under consideration, and, if so, since what date; and whether he can state the probable cost of erecting suitable buildings, and when they are likely to be started?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELProposals involving the rehousing of several departments of the Post Office at Dublin have been under consideration for some time; but they are not yet sufficiently advanced to enable the Postmaster-General to form an estimate of the probable cost or to fix any date for beginning the works.
§ Mr. FIELDasked what steps were taken by the London officials in the absence of formal reports from the supervising officers at Dublin to ascertain the qualifications of the Dublin unestablished porters performing the better class of work for promotion to the vacant storemen's appointments at Dublin; and whether it is a new departure to dispense with formal reports from supervising officers when comparing the qualifications of men serving in offices several hundreds of miles distant, and with whose capabilities the head of the department must be necessarily unacquainted?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELIn my answer to the Hon. Member on this subject on the 30th April last I explained the method of selection. I may add that the method was not a new departure in the Post Office.