§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary if he will state the average number of persons in prison in Ireland ten years ago and now; the amount of increase or diminution in the annual cost of the prison service now as compared with ten years ago; the scale of pay of the Prison Board, governors, officials, and warders, respectively, then and now, with the present periods and amounts of increase in each class; if the warder service is recruited from police pensioners, what their scale of pay is, and whether they are satisfactory; 905W on what grounds warders in Irish prisons are paid £15 a year less than warders in English and Scottish prisons performing similar duties; why the petition presented by the Irish warders two years ago for an increase of pay has not been granted nor even acknowledged; and, in view of the increased cost of living, whether an increase will now be made in the pay of those men?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe daily average number of persons confined as prisoners in the Irish prisons in 1913–4, the last year for which figures are available, was 2,226, as compared with 2,565 in 1903–4. The net expenditure has increased in the ten years from £104,472 to £110,653, but for details of the scale of pay of the General Prisons Board and the prison officers and of the changes which have taken place since 1903, I would refer the hon. Member to the relative Parliamentary Estimates (for 1903–4 and for 1913–14). The permanent warder service is not recruited from police pensioners, but a limited number of these are employed at the rate of one guinea a week as temporary warders to act as guards, night watchmen, etc., and in these capacities they have been found satisfactory. Various differences in conditions account for differences in pay between warders in the English and Scotch and in the Irish prison service. The petition referred to by the hon. Member was acknowledged. The question of improving the position of warders in Irish prisons is at present under consideration.