§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if the Local Government Board auditors find that the work connected with the preparation of lists of voters and jurors is more expensive and less efficiently performed by county officers than it was, prior to 1899, by union officers; is he aware that complaints on this subject are numerous, and that many boards of guardians and district councils have adopted resolutions calling for the repeal of Section 83 (7) of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898; and whether he will give favourable consideration to this suggestion.
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. BIRRELL, Bristol, N.)The auditors of the Local Government Board have not made any representation to the effect suggested in the first part of the Question. In the opinion of the Board there are no grounds for supposing that the work is less efficiently performed by county officers, though no doubt there has been some increase in the cost owing to the increase in the work caused by the preparation of the list of local government electors. Some resolutions to the effect mentioned have been received, but there does not appear to be any sufficient reason for repealing the provision referred to. The persons who are in the best position to prepare the voters' and jurors' lists are the officials who prepare the rate-books, namely, the county secretaries.