With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions 39 and 40 together.
The agreement between the Department and the Subpostmasters' Union provides for quarterly meetings of the Subpostmasters' Consultative Council unless in any quarter it is agreed that no meeting is required.
In practice, it has not been found necessary to have a meeting each quarter and in 1960 two meetings were held, one on 17th May and the other on 10th October. A meeting has not so far been held this year, but one has been arranged for 17th April.
The only occasion on which the Department has refused a Union request for a meeting was in February, 1960, when a meeting which had been arranged for that month was cancelled because of improper publication by the union of confidential proceedings of the council.
The Consultative Council has dealt with three major salary claims. Two of these as well as some smaller claims were settled in a matter of months. The third claim involved a good deal of research and it was almost three years before agreement was reached.
The provision of an arbitration scheme for subpostmasters would not in my view speed up the treatment of their claims and, as stated in replies to previous questions, it is not proposed to introduce such a scheme.