§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the paragraph in the last Report of the Loan Fund Board of Ireland in which the Board asserts its opinion that Loan Fund legislation upon broad lines is still necessary, as it was in the year 1855, when a Select Committee of the House of Commons reported in favour of legislation having a tendency to secure more regular and business-like attention to their duties on the part of the treasurers and trustees of each society; and whether, seeing that recommendations similar to the above have been repeatedly made by the Loan Fund Board since the year 1855, he will explain why the Government have not made any attempt to legislate in accordance with the recommendations of the Board.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) It is not for me to explain the inaction of previous Governments over a period extending so far back as 1855. But I may be permitted to point out that the present Government a few years ago introduced and passed a Bill, the object of which was to meet the most pressing of the difficulties of the Loan Fund system, That legislation secured satisfactory results. It was stated by the Attorney-General for Ireland on the 15th,* and again on the 22nd June, † that the
* See (4) Debates, cxxiii., 953.† See (4) Debates, cxxiv., 52.12 Government had drafted a further amending Bill granting facilities for the recovery of outstanding debts, and that the Bill would be introduced if Government received an assurance from hon. Members that it should be treated as a non-contentious measure. No such assurance has yet been received.