MR. O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Francis Morris, Secretary of the Grand Jury of the county Clare, has been for a number of years in the habit of charging road contractors a fee of 2s. 6d. each for form of tender when applying for contracts for public works, and a fee of 4s. for what he terms "accounting" on getting their half-yearly payments of account; whether he has admitted, when questioned by Mr. Anthony O'Dwyer, a cesspayer, at the Presentment Sessions held at Multown Mulbury in May last, that these charges were illegal, and ought not to 1048 have been made; whether he, notwithstanding, extracted the fees as usual from contractors when settling their accounts after the last assizes; and, whether any proceedings will be instituted against Morris?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir WILLIAM HART DYKE)I have already explained that the Secretary of a Grand Jury is not an officer of the Government, and that, therefore, the question of charges by him is not a matter for Parliamentary interference.