§ MR. P. MARTINasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If it is not the fact that there are at present some three hundred Acts on the Statute Book which relate to the duties assigned to the Board of Works in Ireland; whether it has been represented to the Treasury by the Departmental Committee appointed in 1877 that it was necessary for the due and prompt discharge of the statutory duties of the Board in respect to loans that the work of the consolidation and amendment of these statutes should be at once taken in hand; if so, what steps have been taken in respect to this and the other recommendations made by the Committee in June 1878 with regard to the reconstruction and reorganization of the Board of Works; and, if it is the intention of the Government, and, if so, when, to submit any Bill or Bills to the House to give effect to the recommendations, or any or which of them so made by the Committee?
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSONSir, the Committee of Inquiry of 1877–8 reckoned the number of Acts relating to the Irish Board of Works at 300, and recommended that they should be consolidated. In accordance with this recommendation, the Treasury have employed Mr. Brougham Leech, of the Irish Bar, to prepare a scheme of consolidation, and he has now been engaged for more than a year on the task. A Bill has been prepared, and will shortly 519 be introduced, for re-constructing the Board of Works and re-distributing its duties.