§ MR. MITCHELL HENRYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether 694 his attention has been called to the recent Report of the Commissioners of Public Works, Ireland, in which Mr. Deane recommends that the list of national monuments should be increased, so as to include many round towers and churches worthy of preservation, and which could be saved for centuries by a trifling outlay; and, if so, whether any steps will be taken by the Commissioners of Church Temporalities to carry out the suggestion of Mr. Deane the superintending architect?
§ Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, the Report of the Commissioners of Public Works is addressed to the Treasury, of which that Board is a sub-department, and my attention had not been called to it until I saw the Notice of the hon. Member's Question. Nor have I any control over the Church Temporalities Commissioners; but they have informed me that, considering the large sums of money (£22,554) which they have already handed over to the Board of Works for the maintenance of ecclesiastical ruins as national monuments, they would not feel themselves justified in making further grants for similar purposes unless very cogent reasons are given to them for doing so. They are, however, still ready to give full consideration to any cases that may be brought under their notice. Special allusion is made in Dr. Deane's Report to the ruins of Clonmacnoise; but these ruins have been vested in the Representative Church Body under the 25th section of the Irish Church Act, and that body will, no doubt, take proper steps to preserve the ruins from further decay.