§ Mr. NANNETTIasked the Postmaster-General if there is any immediate prospect of the carrying out of the Hobhouse recommendations in the Dublin sorting office as regards confining the duties within 12 hours; is he aware that nearly a year and a half has now elapsed since the recommendations were made public; and will he see that the new duty scheme is expedited?
§ Mr. BUXTONAs I have previously informed the hon. Member, it is intended to confine the attendances within a period of 12 hours as far as the peculiar incidence of the work at Dublin permits, and the question is being considered in connection with a revision now in hand.
§ Mr. NANNETTIasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the superintendent of the sorting office, Dublin, is still acting as an insurance agent; whether he intends to allow one holding such a position to act in the capacity of insurance agent; whether he will make inquiries when two sorting clerks and telegraphists, named J. Devine and Fitzpatrick, were enrolled as members of the insurance society, the date of their entrance, and the name of the agent who enrolled them; whether he is aware that Mr. Devine joined the society in 1907 and Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1908; if he will inquire whether the statement made that this superintendent gave a flat denial to the implication of being an agent in answer to a previous charge was true in fact; and what steps he proposes to take?
§ Mr. BUXTONI am informed that the officer in question supplied Messrs. Devine and Fitzpatrick, at their request, with information, but that he did not canvass1960W them on behalf of an insurance society. This is not inconsistent either with the rules of the service or the statements made by the officer in question.