§ MR. TULLY (Leitrim, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether the Local Government Board informed one of the Cork Councils early in the year that a director of a joint-stock company, which had a contract with the Council, could not be a member of the Council; and whether, as Article 12, Sub-section 5 (c), of the Application of Enactments Order, 1898, provides that a shareholder of a company having a contract is not disqualified as a councillor, and as a director's interest is not greater than a shareholder's, he will direct the Local Government Board to issue fresh instructions on the subject.
§ *MR. G. W. BALFOURThe Local Government Board have been unable to trace any case such as is referred to in the first paragraph, but if the hon. Member will supply me with further particulars I will have another search made. I may add that the point raised appears to be a legal one, and could not, therefore, be finally decided by an opinion of the Local Government Board, even if they expressed one.