HC Deb 11 August 1882 vol 273 cc1514-5
COLONEL O'BEIRNE

asked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, If it is a fact that the magistrates acting at Ballinamore Petty Sessions, county Leitrim, have lately refused to enter into any inquiry as to whether the entries in the account books kept by the Poor Law Guardians of the Bawnboy Union, for the sums debited to tenants for the purchase of seeds under the Relief of Distress (Ireland) Act, are correct; and, will the Local Government Board direct an examination to be made into the account books of the said distributors, with a view of remedying the injustice that tenants are subject to by the false and careless entries made in the books of the Poor Rate collectors and clerk of the Union?

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. PORTER)

I find that the only information the Local Government Board have upon this matter is contained in a Memorial received from 15 ratepayers, who have been rated for seed in Bawnboy Union, and who state that some of them never made application for seed, and never received any, and that others only received a portion of the seed for which they are charged. They further alleged that the magistrates at Ballinamore Petty Sessions, where they were summoned, refused to investigate the cases, and granted decrees according to the entries in the collector's books without hearing any defence. The Local Government Board have communicated with the Guardians on the subject, but have not yet received their reply. With regard to the action of the magistrates in the matter the clerk of Petty Sessions at Ballinamore informs me that, the magistrates, on the 29th ultimo, refused to enter into a general inquiry as to the accounts kept by the Bawnboy Board of Guardians— Having regard to the facts of the accounts then sued for being publicly notified, as well as special notices having been given to each party of the sums due by them for seed, &c, and no objection having been made by those parties within the proper time. The clerk of Petty Sessions adds that the magistrates did investigate some of the cases.