asked the Minister for Finance why post office clerical officers who are promoted from lower post office grades as a result of confined examination receive an allowance of only £11 per annum for each child; and if he will state the reason for continuing this system.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Post Office Clerical Officers: Children's Allowances.
21.
Clerical Officers recruited by competition confined to Post Office departmental grades were not eligible to receive any children's allowances at all under the civil service scheme as their remuneration was not differentiated on a marriage basis. When they were appointed clerical officers they were appointed on the scale appropriate to married officers irrespective of their marital status. The question of according children's allowances in respect of married members in this category was raised under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for the Civil Service and an agreement was reached which provided for the payment ex gratia of allowances of £11 a year for each eligible child.
Would the Minister give just one good reason why there should be such a difference between those who are recruited through examination and those who are recruited from the lower grades? Is it just a matter of snobbery or of class distinction of the worst possible form?
I do not think it is a question of snobbery. We are not snobs in the Department of Finance, but we are frugal.
Would the Minister explain why the frugality has to be practised in respect of one particular type of civil servant?
There is obviously a difference between the two and, to prove it, I may say that this was approved of by the two bodies.