MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, is he aware that the Wicklow Harbour Commissioners have given away a contract amounting to over £14,000 for repairs, without advertising for tenders, to a Scotch contractor; whether this money is to be provided from Treasury grant of £25,000; whether the Scotch contractor is the same person against whom the Newry Navigation Company obtained a verdict of £10,000 in the year 1889, in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, for negligence in carrying out the Newry Navigation Works; and whether an inquiry will be made into this matter with a view to protect the ratepayers?
§ MR. HANBURYI understand that the Wicklow Harbour Commissioners have, under consideration a non-competitive tender of a Glasgow contractor for repairing works at a cost of £14,600. The money for the proposed works would be provided, not from a Treasury grant, but from a loan of £28,750 to be advanced by the Board of Works under the Wicklow Harbour Advances Act of last year. The Newry Navigation Company some years ago obtained a verdict for £6,200 in respect of the non-completion of a contract, the defendant being of the same name as the contractor now in question, but I do not know whether he was the same person. In cases where public works are aided by loan, the Board of Works have no power to interfere as regards the selection of a contractor.