MR. AUSTINI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the case of a man named James Carroll, who was killed on the 15th July last year by an accident in the discharge of his duties as employee of Messrs. Watkins and Company, brewers, of Dublin; whether he is aware that this man left a widow and three children unprovided for, and that the Court of Appeal held that this case did not come within the operation of the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1897, because the accident did not actually occur on the premises of the brewery; and whether the Government intend to take any steps to extend the Act so as to cover accidents of this kind.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have no knowledge of the facts of the case referred to in the hon. Gentleman's question, nor do I know whether he has accurately represented the legal decision; but it has never been denied by my right hon. friend the Home Secretary that the Act would require some amendment, and I believe he has more than once stated that there are points on which the Act might not only be amended but extended with advantage.