Mr. ALFRED DAVIES (Clitheroe)asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Assistant Under-Secretary, at a meeting at Dublin Castle on the 17th August last, promised the Irish prison officers representative council that the new assimilation scheme of pay and bonus would be promulgated by the end of September; whether he is aware that the officers concerned greatly resent the treatment they are receiving, having regard to the conditions under which they are now living; if the president of the Irish prison officers' council has repeatedly pleaded for an early promulgation of the scheme; whether he is aware that anything less than full assimilation with the pay, bonus and general conditions of service obtaining in English prisons will be rejected by the Irish prison service; and when it is intended to promulgate the scheme as agreed to on the 17th August last?
§ Sir H. GREENWOODI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by me to a question on this subject asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (Mr. Hirst) on the 26th October, 1920. It had been hoped that the matter would have been finally disposed of at an earlier date, but I can assure my hon. Friend that every effort is being made to effect a settlement.