§ MR. J. J. CLANCY (Dublin Co., N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has further reconsidered the question raised by several public men and public bodies in Ireland as to the rate of interest charged on loans for purposes connected with lunatic asylums in that country; and whether he is aware that, while the Government can borrow money at 2½ per cent. interest, interest at the rate of 3½ per cent. is charged for loans for the purposes referred to; and, if so, whether the Treasury will be allowed to continue to make a profit out of such transactions, especially in view of the fact that the boards of lunatic asylums in Ireland are not allowed to borrow in the open market, and that, in almost every other civilised country the 1640 Government, instead of throwing the cost of the housing and maintenance of the lunatic poor on local rates, provides for it out of the resources of the State at large?
§ MR. HANBURYThe question assumes that the State makes an appreciable profit out of the loan transactions, which is not the fact. The money lent has been raised by a 3 per cent. stock irredeemable for 16 years to come; and with 3 per cent. payable on the money so raised, with administrative and other charges which the Loans Fund has to meet, and with certain loans made in Ireland at exceptionally low rates (loans, for instance, to tenants for the purchase of their holdings at 3⅛ per cent.), there can be and there is (as the annual accounts show) no more than a very small and uncertain margin. As the law, therefore, at present stands, it is not possible to reduce the rate of interest on loans as suggested in the question.