§ MR. J SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether he is aware that, contrary 842 to the 38th Section of the Loan Fund Act, the Derrygonnelly Loan Fund, County Fermanagh, transacts its business in a public house, and whether he will have the certificate cancelled and the penalty of £10 enforced against the responsible officers for every such offence; (2) whether he will inquire why the Loan Fund Board's secretary and inspector have not brought this violation of the Act under the notice of their Board, particularly after the late inspections of 8th December 1894 and 5th December 1895; (3) how many of the loan funds operating in the counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone have their business transacted in places prohibited by the 38th Section of the Loan Fund Act; (4) has it come under his notice that it is notorious to the police and local magistrates that loan funds under present working are the occasion of much loss of time to borrowers and bailsmen, and an unusual amount of intoxication, resulting in prosecutions at petty sessions; and, (5) will he cause inquiry to be made through the police where loan fund offices are held?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURIt appears to be a fact that the business of the loan fund mentioned in the first paragraph has been transacted on licensed premises, though I am informed that there is a separate entrance to the office rented by the society, so that persons passing in and out need not pass through the shop or bar. This seems to me to be in direct contravention of the requirements of Section 38 of the Act of 1843, and I am making further inquiries into the matter. In 1892, and again last year, the Inspector of the Loan Fund Board reported to the Board that the office of the Derrygonnelly loan fund was over a public bar, but apparently no action was taken in the matter. I am making inquiry into the points touched upon in the the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether it is lawful for a loan fund to make to any one person a second loan until the previous loan has been repaid; whether he is aware that there has grown up in Ireland a system of renewal of loans on 843 failure of repayment in whole or in part; and whether his attention has been called to the fact that in many cases a loan, instead of being repaid in five months, in compliance with the Act, has been allowed to run on for years under this system of renewal with attendant fines?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURIt is not lawful for a Loan Fund Society working under the Act of 1843 to make to any one person a second loan until the first one has been repaid. I am informed that it is the fact that in several loan funds a system has prevailed of renewing loans which are altogether or partly in arrear as to repayment. The Loan Fund Board were advised, in 1893, that this system was illegal; and the Board so informed the managers of each loan fund at which the renewal system prevailed, and pointed out that the abuse must be abandoned. In April last, the Board's Inspector reported that he had found hardly any abatement of the illegal system at the offices where it had prevailed, and the Board have now under consideration the question as to the best course to be taken by them in the matter.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he has any objection to lay upon the Table the Return for which a Notice of Motion appears on the Paper, relating to Charitable Loan Funds in Ireland?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI see no objection to the proposed Return.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if he will state the amount of the net profit of the Ballyshannon Loan Fund for the past ten years; whether one-tenth of such net profit was, as required by the forty-fourth section of the Loan Fund Act of 1843, set aside as a reserve for the security of the debenture holders; how much of the residue was expended for useful local purposes, in accordance with the same section; and, what has become of the balance?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe total net profit of Ballyshannon Loan Fund in the past ten years amounted to £750 17s. 6d. The 44th Section of the Act of 1843 prescribes that not less than one-tenth of the net profit is to be annually allocated as a reserve fund for 844 the security of the Debenture holders, and I am informed that more than one-tenth of the net profit of this particular society has been set aside yearly for this purpose. As regards the optional appropriation of portion of the residue of the net annual profits towards a local useful purpose, the only grant of the kind given from the Ballyshannon Loan Fund during the past ten years was a sum of £20 which was voted from the profits of 1895 for the poor of the locality. I am informed that net profits not allocated under the provisions of Section 44 of the Act are used as portion of the working capital of the Society.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, (1) whether the Ballyshannon Loan Fund was established in 1883 for the districts of Ballyshannon, Belleek, Ballintra, and Bundoran; (2) whether a few years later the Loan Fund Board gave a certificate for another Loan Fund at Bundoran, and in 1894 a similar certificate for a Loan Fund in Belleek; and, (3) what precautions the Loan Fund Board take against simultaneous indebtedness to all three funds?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe facts are correctly stated in the first and second paragraphs, except that the establishment of the Loan Fund at Belleek was authorised in 1885, not 1894. To guard against simultaneous indebtedness by the same persons to different Loan Funds in the same neighbourhood, the Board, some years ago, issued instructions to managers requiring them to have their lists of borrowers and sureties compared three or four times yearly.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORinquired how it was the Loan Fund Board had permitted such a state of things to arise?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURsaid he was making inquiries as to whether the instructions had really been carried out.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked if it was not the duty of the Loan Fund Board to see that their instructions were carried out?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURthought that it was.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if he will lay upon the Table a copy of the rules of the Ballyshannon Loan Fund?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI shall be prepared to lay upon the Table a copy of the rules of this Loan Fund if the hon. and learned Gentleman will move for the rules in the usual way. Perhaps the object he has in view would be equally attained if I were to supply him privately with a copy.