§ CAPTAIN DONELANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to a resolution unanimously adopted by the Committee of Management of the Cork Lunatic Asylum, on 12th September last, protesting against the injustice that would be inflicted upon the ratepayers of the country by taking from the Local Taxation Fund, for the fifteen months ending 31st March, 1899, the grant formerly paid out of the Consolidated Fund as Treasury grant in aid of the pauper lunatics, and which should have been borne by the Consolidated Fund up to 31st March, 1899, being the date of the commencement of the Local Government Act; and whether any steps will be taken to remedy this grievance.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe complaint of the Committee of Management of the Cork Lunatic Asylum appears to have been made under a misconception. The grant has been paid in each year about the month of June in aid of the rates of that financial year, but the amount of it has been measured by the expenditure of the previous calendar year. That system has only been changed to this extent, that instead of taking the expenditure of the previous calendar year as the measure the expenditure of the previous financial year will in future be taken. This will not lay upon the Local Taxation Fund the burden of fifteen months' expenditure as the resolution appears to assume, but only of twelve months.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANIs it not the fact that as a result of this arrangement the Local Taxation Fund will be saddled with expenses incurred previous to the 245 date at which the Local Government (Ireland) Act came in force?
§ (No answer was given.)