§ LORD ARTHUR HILLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether of the £180,000 voted by Parliament last Session to the Royal Irish Constabulary for extra work and labour in connection with the recent agitations in Ireland, there is a balance of upwards of £20,000 in the hands of the Castle authorities; whether all ranks under that of sub-inspector received three months' pay; whether the Dublin Metropolitan Police of all ranks have been recompensed to a similar extent, whilst the officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary have received nothing; whether it is a fact that the officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary memorialized the Government in connection with the distribution of the said balance; whether the case as stated by them was strongly recommended by the Inspector General for the favourable consideration of the Executive; whether this application was refused; and, whether he is aware of any reason why the officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary should be separated from their men in participation in a reward granted for extra duties in which all shared?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe facts are as stated in the noble Lord's Question. It was never intended that the officers of 1570 the Constabulary Force should share in this grant, the main object of which was, as the House is aware, to recoup to the men expenses which they had been actually out of pocket owing to the insufficiency of their allowances to meet certain exceptional charges, which fell specially upon them. The fact that an over-estimate was made of the amount required is no sufficient reason why the Government should expend the unexhausted balance for a purpose for which it was not intended when Parliament was asked to vote it. With regard to the distribution of the sum voted for the Dublin Metropolitan Police, it must be remembered that the position of the Superintendents of that Force was not considered to be analogous to that of the Sub-Inspectors of Constabulary. The whole of the Superintendents are appointed from the ranks, and the Dublin Metropolitan Police are in this respeet homogeneous from the Sub-Commissioner downwards. The Government consider that the legitimate claims of the Constabulary officers were met by the legislation—the rather large legislation I must say—of last year.