§ MR. MICHAEL AUSTINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland when effect will be given to the recommendations in the Report of the Select Committee on Stationery Contracts by the Irish Administration?
§ *MR. HANBURYA small Committee, composed partly of Members of this House and partly of Departmental Officers, has just been appointed under the Chairmanship of the hon. Member for East Donegal, to inquire, inter alia, into the best method of carrying into effect the first and fifth recommendations of the Select Committee so far as regards Stationery Office Contracts. The second and third recommendations fall within the scope of the Inquiry now being held by the Select Committee on the Working of the Fair Wages Resolution in Government Departments generally. That Committee was appointed subsequently to the Stationery Contracts Committee, and I think it would be best to await their report. The fourth recommendation affects the Irish stationery contracts, entered into not by the Stationery Office, but by other offices which are subordinate Departments of the Irish Government. In the earlier portion of their Report the Committee expressed the opinion that the contracts of the Education Board are Government contracts, and no doubt my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary will take up the question as soon as the evidence taken before the Committee is published.