§ MR. MAHONY (Meath, N)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that in the instructions issued by the Lord Lieutenant to the cess payers of the baronies connected with the Fenit Pier Loan, and on faith of which the cesspayers gave a guarantee for £95,000, the following passage occurs:—
No portion of it (the loan) can be expended on the present canal, or in payment of the balance of the canal debt due to the Public Works Loan Commissioners, or of the instalments of the present loan;but that, in spite of this passage in the 59 instructions, £2,500 was paid to the National Bank in discharge of a debt due by the canal, £300 and £290 were paid to the Public Works Loan Commissioners in discharge of the debt due by the canal, and £3,192 11s. 4d. was paid to the Irish Board of Works in discharge of the instalments on the Fenit Pier Loan referred to in the Lord Lieutenant's instructions as the present loan; whether interest has to be paid and capital repaid by the taxpayers as regards these sums, although these sums were paid by the Fenit Harbour Commissioners in direct contravention of the Lord Lieutenant's instructions, on the faith of which the taxpayers gave their guarantee; and, whether, if these facts be as stated, he will take steps to enforce the instructions of the Lord Lieutenant?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURFull information on the subject of this question has not yet reached me. I must therefore ask the hon. Member to be so good as to defer it for two or three days.