asked the Minister for Local Government if it is a fact that his Department has recently refused to sanction the payment of the substitutes of Clerks of Rural District Councils: (1) while on holidays, and (2) when incapacitated by illness duly certified by a medical man; whether this is a reversal of the procedure which obtained for years in such cases, as regards lay officials, and which procedure is expressly laid down in the Dispensary Rules; whether the imposition on officials when sick to pay their substitutes is in direct conflict with Article 36 of the Workhouse Rules, and is a particular injustice to officials who did not take yearly holidays and are now called upon to pay substitutes during illness.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - R.D.C. CLERKS' SUBSTITUTES.
Sanction to the payment of substitutes has been refused in the cases of clerks whose salaries have been raised to the graded scale agreed to by the Local Government Board with the Union and Rural District Clerks' Association in 1920. The graded scale salaries, as so agreed to, cover all clerical expenses. Accordingly there has been no departure from precedent in requiring such officials to provide substitutes at their own expense.
I am satisfied that the scale remuneration is fully adequate for the work to be performed and that payment of substitutes could only be conceded in return for suitable reductions in salaries.