§ SIR WALTER NUGENT (Westmeath, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that a deduction has been made by the Treasury from the amount payable to the Westmeath County Council in respect of the Death Duty Grant for the year ended 31st March, 1907 if he can state the amount of the deduction and on what account it has been deducted; whether the amount deducted is entirely lost to the council; and if such deductions arc likely to continue or occur in the future, or if this is merely a temporary deduction of the money, which will be paid to the council at a future date.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe amount deducted in 1907 from the Death Duty Grant of county Westmeath was £2,393 9s. 0d. of which £179 0s. 6d. was the net amount required from the county by the Irish Land Commission towards balancing the Land Purchase Account under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, and £214: 8s. 6d. represented the net amount chargeable to the county under the Irish Land Act, 1903. This last sum includes £254 in respect of arrears of annuities, and £1,960 on account of the deficiency of the Income Account of the Irish Land Purchase Fund. Approximately, £750 may be taken as a merely temporary deduction, and the balance as in part a final charge on the county, and in part a charge ultimately to be recouped when the final instalments of purchase annuity are paid. For an explanation of the general Question, I would refer the hon. Member to my Answer to the Question 69 of the hon. Member for Waterford on the 22nd April, 1907. †