§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that the Irish Constabulary authorities are in the habit of regulating the amount of pension granted to a constable injured in the discharge of his duty by the amount of compensation levied upon the ratepayers of the district in which the injury is received; and whether, in view of the great hardship thus inflicted upon Irish cesspayers, who have no representation upon the taxing body, instructions will be issued to the proper quarter to allow constables so injured pensions upon the highest possible scale?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThere is no foundation for the assumption contained in this question, as, in the cases of men incapacitated for further service in the constabulary, by malicious injuries received in the execution of their duty, the Constabulary authorities, with the full approval of the Irish Government, have invariably recommended the award of the highest rates of pension payable under Statute, quite irrespective of the amount of compensation which may have been granted by public bodies for the malicious injuries.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANI beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether his attention has been called to the action taken by the County Court Grand Jury on the 11th instant, in awarding £800 pounds to Constable John Quinlan, Royal Irish Constabulary, as compensation for injuries received while endeavouring to quell a drunken brawl in a public-house on the 17th March last; whether he is aware that the ratepayers upon whom this tax will be levied had no representation upon this body; and whether the Grand Jury acted within the legal limits of their fiscal powers in placing this heavy charge upon the ratepayers of the county Cork?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.My attention has been called to the award by the Grand Jury of Cork of the sum of £800 to the constable named in the Question. I have not seen a report of the evidence given before the Grand Jury when the application was made, but I presume it must have been been supplied to bring the case within the provisions of the 106th section of the Grand Jury Act, under which the Grand Jury purported to act. The taxpayers have not any elected representatives on any Grand Jury. The answer to the last paragraph is in the affirmative.