§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state the precise condition whereby the grant from the Exchequer of £150,000 was made to the Royal Irish Constabulary Force Fund; what is the total amount that the 7,000 subscribers pay annually to this, and what is the yearly disbursement; and whether, when the present subscribers have disappeared, the remaining balance will be surrendered to the Exchequer.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The grant from the Exchequer of £150,000 to the Constabulary Force Fund was made on condition, inter alia, that the fund should be strictly appropriated to the discharge of the liabilities already incurred, and that, if the grant should prove more than sufficient to satisfy the solvency of the fund, the surplus should be returned to the Exchequer. The hon. Member will find full particulars of the matter in Parliamentary Paper, No. 118, of-1891. In the year 1905-6 the amount recived from subscribers was £6,957, and the amount of the disbursements was £13,759. The reply to the concluding inquiry is in the affirmative.