§ MR. COGAN (Wicklow, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the capitation grant to lunatic asylums in Ireland is not paid to the county councils until the year following that in respect of which the expenditure is made, and that owing to the change in the local financial year the asylum committees were obliged to issue demands to the county councils for fifteen months cost of maintenance of pauper lunatics, from 1st January, 1899, to 31st March, 1900; is he aware that a capitation grant was paid in the year 1901 in respect of twelve months service only, from 1st April, 1899, to 31st March, 1900, and no more than a year's grant has since been paid in respect of the subsequent annual service; and in view of the fact that the county councils were obliged to make good the difference of three months' gap, will he see that the councils are recouped from the local taxation account.
MR. BRYCEThe capitation grant to lunatic asylums in Ireland is paid to the county councils in the year following that in respect of which the expenditure is made on which the amount of the grant is calculated, but the grant is applicable in relief of the rates in the year in which it is actually paid. It is the fact that owing to the change in the local financial year the Asylum Committees were obliged to issue demands to the county councils for fifteen months cost of maintenance of pauper lunatics from 1s
† See (4), Debates, clviii., 83.953 January, 1899, to 31st March, 1900. It is also the fact that the capitation grant paid in the year 1901 was in respect of of twelve months' service from 1st April, 1899, to 31st March, 1900, and that no more than a year's grant has since been paid in respect of the subsequent annual service. The year's grant paid in 1901 corresponded to the year's grant paid in previous years, the only difference made by the change in the financial year in 1899 being that instead of taking the calendar year as the basis of the grant as had been done previously, the financial year ending 31st March was taken as the basis. I have already informed the hon. Member that as in each year a full year's payment has been made from the Local Taxation Account, no recoupment to county councils is possible.