HC Deb 08 February 1897 vol 45 cc1549-50
MR. KNOX

I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland (1) whether the forms prescribed by the regulations as to issue of stock in Ireland, under the Public Health Act Amendment Act 1890, contemplate the issue of stock only after public tender, to be invited after the resolution for its creation has been passed; (2) whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Londonderry Corporation, nevertheless, have resolved to issue stock to the amount of £80,000 without public tender at par, and have refused to consider an offer of 101 per cent. made for the stock by a responsible person, on the ground that the Corporation was bound by a contract alleged to have been entered into not under seal, in respect of a smaller total amount and before the consent order had been issued by the Local Government Board; (3) whether the Local Government Board were aware of this alleged contract when they issued their consent order on 27th January; and (4) whether the Board have any power to prevent such a transaction; and, if not, whether the regulations will be revised so as to prevent it being repeated?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.

The forms and regulation framed under the Statute mentioned resembling in this respect those framed by the Local Government Board in England, do not prescribe any mode in which applications for stock are to be invited, that being left to the local authorities to determine. I am not aware whether the facts are exactly as stated in the second paragraph, as some difference of opinion appears to exist between the members of the Corporation as to what was the precise nature and effect of the negotiations on the subject. The answer to the third paragraph is in the negative. As to the fourth paragraph, the Local Government Board have no power to interfere with the action of the local authority, in respect of the issue of stock after a consent order has been made, and inasmuch as the regulations are similar to those prescribed in England and have been found on the whole to work satisfactorily, it is not considered desirable to alter them.