§ MR. EDWARD HARRINGTON (Kerry, W.)I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether it is the intention of the Inspector General and the Royal Irish Constabulary Authorities to wind up the Constabulary Force Fund, and whether unmarried men who joined the Force before 1883, and who are now on pension, continue to subscribe to the Fund with no other prospect of return than that of said Fund being wound up and apportioned to subscribers; and whether rewards of merit have been taken from this Fund and distributed to officers and men who may have joined the Force since 1883, or who, in any case, have not been subscribers to the Fund?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN,) Dublin UniversityThe insurance branch of the Constabulary Force Fund is in process of being wound up by gradual extinction under the Act of 1883, which prohibits members joining the Force after that date from subscribing to the Fund. There is, however, no intention to make a general distribution of the Fund; but each claim against it will, as heretofore, be paid upon maturing. There is no known instance of an unmarried man now on pension continuing to subscribe to the fund, nor could such a subscriber derive any benefit from doing so by the rules governing the fund. Rewards of merit are not paid from the insurance branch of the fund, which is paid from the subscriptions of contributing members, but from the reward branch, the income of which is derived from portions of fines awarded to the police by Magistrates, or under the Licensing Acts. Eight men, appointed since the Act of 1883, have received rewards from the reward branch, amounting in all to a total of £18.