§ MR. SWIFT MAcNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to a resolution passed by the Donegal County Council, requesting the Irish Local Government Board to vary their certificate under Section 49 of the Irish Local Government Act, and allow the county the further sum of £1,100 7s. annually, inasmuch as the sums of £787 17s. 11d. and of £912 16s. 4d., received by the Grand Jury of the County of Donegal from the sale of dog licences, and the sum of £500, received from the Belfast Bank as interest on credit balances on foot of such Grand Jury's account, were in the standard year applied by the Grand Jury in aid of the county cess for said year, and were not taken into account in calculating the proportion of the Agricultural Grant to which the county was entitled; and whether he, as head of the Irish Local Government Board, will take steps to secure that effect be given to this resolution.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURA copy of the resolution referred to has been received by the Local Government Board, and the County Council have been informed that the sums in question were duly taken into account by the Board before they made their certificate under Section 49 of the Local Government Act, 1193 It has also been pointed out to the Council that these sums appear in the audited abstracts of the county accounts, which were used by the Board in making the necessary calculations.
MR. T. M. HEALYMay I ask whether it is not a fact that so cumbrous are the arrangements of the Local Government Board with regard to the books that forty clerks are now required by the Cork County Council to do work hitherto accomplished by two clerks, and that the County Council has in vain protested?
§ *MR. G. W. BALFOURI do not see how that arises out of the question.