To ask the Postmaster-General if he will state the conditions under which postal servants serving under the Provisional and Free State Governments were and are allowed to transfer to the service of the British Government, the number of persons who have taken advantage of such conditions, and whether he is prepared to continue to afford facilities for transfer in either direction without incurring any additional expenditure to the Department or impairing the efficiency of the Irish postal service.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - TRANSFERS IN THE POSTAL SERVICE.
Apart from certain officers who were specially transferred in the interests of the service, transfers between this Administration and the British were effected on a head for head exchange basis, i.e., where an officer in Ireland was desirous of transferring to England we transferred him, and took in exchange an Irishman of corresponding rank from the British service. The number of such transfers so far is 92, and it is, of course, limited by the number of possible exchanges.
It is understood that certain financial arrangements between the two Governments will be necessary before any further exchanges can be effected.