§ MR. FINUCANE (Limerick, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the County Limerick Grand Jury, at the last Assizes, rejected a presentment for laying down with ferrumite a footway to the Roman Catholic Church of Kilmallock, against the unanimous wish of the ratepayers of the barony, as ex-pressed at two Road Sessions; and whether, in view of the fact that the Grand Jury consists of 23 men, mostly landlords, nominated by the High Sheriff, who do not pay more than 5 per cent. of the county cess, the Government will consider the advisability of introducing a Bill to take away from the Grand Jury the power of stopping the construction of useful and necessary works?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have no official information on the subject of this question, which does not come under the cognizance of the Irish Government, but the Secretary to the Grand Jury informs me that the presentment referred to was rejected by the Grand Jury, not because it led to the Roman Catholic Chapel at Kilmallock, but because the cost of a ferrumite footpath would mean a tax of 4½d. in the £1 on the valuation of the barony of Kilmallock. It was proposed by the cess payers at Road Sessions to levy half the expense on the county at large, and members of the Grand Jury from other baronies objected to have it so levied. The Grand Jury was quite willing to agree to a flagged footpath, and so intimated before rejecting the application for ferrumite.