We remember that, on 14th November, Question No. 47 was addressed by me to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs concerning the appointment of a postman for the St. Johnston district. I asked the Minister this Question:
....if he has appointed a postman to St. Johnston Post Office, County Donegal, the date and nature of such appointment, and the circumstances he took into consideration in arriving at his decision.
The Minister replied:
An auxiliary postman was appointed at St. Johnston Post Office on 12th November, 1962. The appointment was an unestablished one. The most suitable qualified person was appointed from a list of persons nominated by the Employment Exchange.
It would be contrary to practice to furnish any information regarding the claims or qualifications of applicants as this would entail disclosing information obtained in confidence concerning these persons.
Arising out of that question and reply, certain supplementary questions were put by me to the Minister. The major question I asked was if the Minister would explain why two interviews were held for this post. The Minister told me he had no supplementary information that two interviews were held.
I have evidence here that an interview was held for this post on 30th January, 1962. I understand that that was held because the man who, previous to that, was carrying the post had resigned for some reason or another. The person appointed by the postmaster in Lifford from that interview was a man named William Edward Carlin, Church Street, St. Johnston.
I might read this letter from the postmaster to Mr. Carlin, written on the day of the interview:
With further reference to the interview held in this Office today, please report at St. Johnston Post Office at 7.35 a.m. on Monday the 5th February, 1962, for duty on the St. Johnston-Ardagh post. In the meantime, you should take steps to get a Birth Certificate which you should send in to me when obtained.
Two days later, the same man received a letter from the postmaster which read:
With reference to your proposed employment as Auxiliary Postman in St. Johnston, I have to inform you that owing to the fact that I have not completed all the necessary formalities in the matter, I will have to defer your temporary appointment until a later date. In the meantime you should take steps to procure your Birth Certificate.
Might I ask the Minister who instructed or at what time did a person instruct him or one of the officials in his Department to change or reverse the decision of two days previously? In any case, I am very suspicious that a Deputy in the North-East constituency of Donegal played a major part in having this man sacked from his post.
Carlin is married, with four of a family. He has a part-time job at something like £60 a year as a care-taker for the local waterworks. He also has ten weeks' fishing on the River Foyle as a crew man. He is ideal for a post such as was offered to him on 30th January—a post which carried a pay of £4 16s. 0d. per week; a pay that no other man, unless he had a sideline, could live on. But Carlin appreciated this post because it supplemented his then income and left him an income on which he could support his wife and four children.
Carlin, to my knowledge, gave very good and satisfactory service during the six months he held this job. I have made inquiries locally and I am at a loss to imagine what legitimate reason the Minister could take into consideration in arriving at his decision. The obvious one is that when a boy of 18 years of age displaces a married man, with four of a family, particularly when that boy is closely associated with the Fianna Fáil cumann in the village of St. Johnston, the whole thing reeks of political suspicion.
It has come to my notice that a certain Deputy in the North-East constituency of County Donegal made a promise that if this lad applied for the job he would make him a present of it. I should like to put it on record that I have no objection to any member of this Parliament trying to help everyone—boys of 18 and married men. I would do it myself but not at the expense, as would appear in this case, of the livelihood of a married man with a family.
I do not object to the boy getting a job but in this instance I think a man with four of a family should get preference. The Minister knows and will agree with me that an unmarried person seeking unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance will receive a lesser weekly allowance than a married man with four of a family. An unemployed married man is a greater burden on the Exchequer than an unemployed single man. Therefore, it is good economics, apart from everything else, to allow a married man to earn the money to enable him to rear his family and to let the younger lad, who has no ties in the country, emigrate—because emigration faces Carlin and, if he emigrates, another home is closed.
I should like also to put on record that any time that I have visited the Minister's Office I was received with courtesy. I feel it difficult to come in here tonight and to accuse the Minister of listening to political talk from the North-East constituency of Donegal. It was common knowledge in the parish of St. Johnston, and it had been common knowledge for a month before the appointment was made, that Carlin was out and Joseph Peoples was getting the job. I should like to remind the Minister and the House that that was not peculiar to his Department. We in Donegal at the moment experience jobbery at its worst.
