asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware that minutes of executive and conciliation council meetings are not made available to the executive members of the Sub-Post Office Union; and if he will take steps to ensure that a copy of these minutes is supplied to the executive members.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sub-Postmasters' Union.
2.
I have no function in regard to minutes of meetings of the Executive Council of the Sub-Postmasters' Union. As regards meetings of the Sub-Postmasters' Conciliation Council, the constitution of the council provides that agreed joint reports of its proceedings are made. The circulation given to these agreed reports within the union is a matter for the union itself.
Will the Minister not make representations and use his good offices to ensure that both sides at conciliation have a record of what is happening? Would the Minister not agree it is too much to expect one side to commit to memory what happened, while the other side have a written record?
The conciliation council have chosen not to keep minutes as such but to issue from time to time agreed joint reports, which reports are submitted to me. The proceedings of the council are confidential and no statements concerning them are issued except with the authority of the council. The council do not authorise publication of reports until the Minister's decision has been conveyed. I have no authority in relation to the circulation of these reports.
I agree and I do not expect the Minister to interfere unnecessarily at conciliation. However, would he not regard himself as having some function to ensure that records are kept of the conciliation meetings so that continuity of purpose may be maintained by both sides?
I do not propose to interfere in this matter with the executive council of the union. It would be most improper for me to interfere in the internal affairs of the union. As regards the conciliation council, they are the masters of their own procedure and I do not propose to interfere with them.