§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the sixty-second annual Re-port of the Loan Fund Board for Ireland, which state; that the existing statutory powers of the Board are not sufficient to enable them to control effectively the operations of loan fund societies; and seeing that the House of Commons Committee of 1855 unanimously reported that legislation giving the Board greater powers of control was necessary, whether he can state why nothing has been done to carry out this recommendation of the Committee, and when the Government propose to introduce a Bill dealing with this subject.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. As respects the second paragraph I am unable to answer for my predecessors for the forty years following 1855. As the hon. Member is aware, a Bill has passed through all its stages in Parliament during the present session which meets the most pressing of the difficulties and hardships of the existing position; but the larger question of how to deal with the loan fund system generally is one respecting which I am not prepared at the present moment to make any statement.
§ MR. DILLONBut why has nothing been done?
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURWe endeavoured to pass a Bill last year, but were prevented by the action of the hon. Member and his friends. We have passed one this year.
§ MR. DILLONThat Bill does not deal with the point raised in my question.