§ MR. CAREW (Meath, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether he will state what amount of official assignees' costs and expenses have been paid out of the unclaimed dividend account in the Bank of Ireland in cases where the official assignees have unsuccessfully appealed to the House of Lords consequent upon a reversal by the Court of Appeal in Ireland of a decision of the judge in the Bankruptcy Division of the High Court during the last year for which accounts are available; and whether the Government will take steps to prevent such accounts from being further depleted by similar actions of the official assignees in future.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)To the knowledge of the present official assignees in bankruptcy the only amount paid to the official assignees for costs and expenses of an unsuccessful appeal to the House of Lords was £1,006 9s. 6d. paid to them over seven years ago in indemnification 145 of costs in re Peel, a bankrupt. This sum was paid in pursuance of Section 85 of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act of 1877 out of moneys provided by Parliament for the purpose. The appeal was taken under the advice of Senior Counsel, both in England and Ireland, and on the authority of an Order of the late Court of Bankruptcy made in 1894.