MR. P. O'BRIEN (on behalf of Mr. NOLAN,) Louth, N.I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Local Government Board have declined to sanction a loan of £6,500 applied for by the Dundalk Joint Burial Board, under Section 247 of "The Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878," for the purpose of providing a cemetery for the united district of Dundalk, under the Dundalk Joint Burial Board Provisional Order, 1891, upon the ground that a certain proportion of the sum asked for would be chargeable on the urban district of Dundalk, which sum with the balances of other loans would exceed twice the annual assessable value of that district; whether he is aware that the net annual value of the premises assessable within the district of the Joint Board amounts to upwards of £31,000, and whether, inasmuch as the Joint Board has not at present incurred any liability by borrowing, it is entitled to borrow up to double that amount without reference to the separate liabilities of its constituent authorities; and if he 161 would state what is the practice as regards borrowing by Joint Boards adopted by the English Local Government Board?
§ MR. MADDENThe case is substantially as stated in the first paragraph of the question. The net annual value of the urban sanitary district is £21,890; and twice that amount, or £43,780, is the limit under Statute of the borrowing power. There is at present a sum of £35,995 due in respect of loans borrowed under the Sanitary Acts, which thus leaves £7,785 as the present maximum amount which can be borrowed as a charge upon the urban sanitary district. The proportion of the proposed burial loan for which this district would be liable amounts to about £4,500, while at the same time there is a proposed sewerage loan of £7,000, making a total of £11,500 against the present maximum limit of £7,785; so that the Local Government Board were unable to sanction the amounts sought. The Board were legally advised that they were bound to take into account the indebtedness of the urban sanitary district when considering the loan to the Joint Burial Board. An Inspector of the Local Government Board has recently held an inquiry, and as a result the Board has suggested that the Sanitary Authorities and the Burial Board should confer with a view to proposing some modification of their schemes.