HC Deb 05 May 1902 vol 107 c629
MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether all the members of the Irish Privy Council received invitations to attend the meeting of that body in Dublin Castle on 16th April, at which a proclamation was issued under the power conferred on the Lord Lieutenant under the fifth section of The Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, to proclaim districts for the purposes of that Act, by, and with the advice of the Irish Privy Council; how many of the fifty-two members of the Irish Privy Council attended this Council meeting; and did the Lord Lieutenant issue this proclamation by and with the advice of the four Members of the Privy Council, who alone were the signatories of that proclamation; and will he state by what practice are the meetings of the Irish Privy Council regulated, and on what principle are summonses to attend meetings of that body issued to some of its members and withheld from others.

MR. ATKINSON

All the members of the Privy Council were not summoned. Pour members attended, and at a meeting presided over by His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, signed the proclamation. The practice usual in such cases was followed. The Lord Lieutenant, as representative of the Sovereign, directs the issue of the summonses, and I must refer the hon. Member to the speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Monmouthshire, delivered in this House on the 15th June, 1887 (in reply to a speech of the hon. Member, who then raised the points again raised in this Question), for a full exposition of the functions discharged by members of the Privy Council in matters of this character.