HC Deb 05 May 1904 vol 134 cc544-5
MR. WILLIAM ABRAHAM (Cork County, N. E.)

I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will lay upon the Table of the House the terms of the arrangement now subsisting between His Majesty's Government and the Directors of the Bank of Ireland under which they hold, pass on to the Exchequer, or otherwise deal with Imperial Revenue and other Irish Government moneys.

MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN

As I stated in reply to the hon. Member for Waterford on the 25th April, the revenue receipts paid into the Bank of Ireland are credited to the Exchequer on the day of receipt. The Exchequer Account and other Accounts of public money in Dublin are kept by the Bank of Ireland as current accounts. The only business for which special terms are arranged is the management of the Public Debt. The rates of remuneration now payable to the Bank for that service were fixed by the † See (4) Debates, cxxxiii., 1059. Bank Act, 1892, and were determined after inquiry by a Departmental Committee into all the relations between the Government and the Bank, special consideration being given to the benefit derived by the Bank from the use of the Government balances. The Act of 1892 prescribes that the rates then fixed shall continue in force till 1912.