§ MR. SEXTONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland what annual amount was leviable upon Irish local rates for maintenance of extra police when the present Government came into Office, and what amount is chargeable at present; and what further reduction can be made in this charge in the immediate future, having regard to the orderly condition of Ireland and the fact that agrarian and all exceptional crime has fallen to the lowest level recorded for many years?
§ MR. BRYCE (for Mr. J. MORLEY)The claims for extra police for the half-year to September 30, 1893, now being sent out (omitting the charge for 50 men assigned to Belfast for ordinary police duty on the application of the Belfast Corporation, but including charges for detachments temporarily sent to other counties) represent an annual charge of £42,940, as against £44,381 for the corresponding period last year. The question of reducing the extra force in counties is carefully considered every half-year in January and July. But it is to be borne in mind that a not inconsiderable portion of the men charged as extra force are engaged in augmentation of the Parliamentary Free Quota of Counties in the discharge of normal police duties.