HC Deb 24 July 1873 vol 217 cc905-6
MR. DELAHUNTY

asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether from the 19th of August 1871, to the 31st December 1872, the Public Works Loan Commissioners, with the sanction of Her Majesty's Treasury, have not granted loans, amounting to £869,833, to local authorities in England for sanitary purposes; whether further amounts have not since been granted for like purposes, and to what extent; whether, during the present month, the Treasury has not obtained power from Parliament to raise a further sum of one and a-half millions to enable the Loan Commissioners to grant additional loans at 3 per cent. to local authorities in England for like purposes; whether from the 19th of August 1871, to the present time, the Treasury has sanctioned any loan to local authorities in Ireland for sanitary purposes, save the one to Waterford at 5 per cent.; and, if any, to state their amounts; whether the maximum period for repayment of such loans in Ireland is not fixed by Law at twenty-five years and in England at fifty years; and, whether, if the facts be so, the Treasury will still insist on exacting in the latter Country a higher rate of interest by 1 per cent. than the 4 per cent. the Law authorizes them to fix and charge?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER,

in reply, said, that from the 19th of August, 1871, to the 31st of December, 1872, the Public Works Loan Commissioners had granted £8,389, and not 2869,833, and since then £262,579 had been granted. This month the Treasury had obtained power to raise £1,500,000, to enable the Loan Commissioners to grant additional loans at 3½ per cent. Since the 19th of August, 1871, the Treasury had sanctioned, besides a 5 per cent loan to Waterford, loans to Ireland, through the Public Works Loan Commissioners, of £12,100 for the Inniskillen Waterworks, £800 to the Mill Street Union, Cork, and £4,300 for Dublin; and, through the Irish Board of 'Works, of £4,000 to Inniskillen. The maximum periods for repayment were in Ireland 25 years, and in England 50 years. He had not the least objection to abolish the distinction of 1 per cent higher interest charged to Ireland; but he was bound by the general rules under which the respective loans were granted. The Waterford Loan was, he believed, from the Public Works Loan Commissioners in England.