§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDE (Wexford, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will give the text of the Act of Parliament constituting the Bank of Ireland the Government banker in Ireland, 1318 and if he will state the date up to which this arrangement stands.
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) Section 10 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, directs that the gross revenues shall be paid to accounts to be entitled '' The Account of His Majesty's Exchequer" at the Bank of England and the Bank of Ireland, respectively, and that all other public moneys payable to the Exchequer shall be paid to the same accounts. The Bank of Ireland is thus constituted the Government Banker in Ireland, so far as the business of the Exchequer is concerned. The arrangement is not limited as to time. Various Acts relating to the National Debt provide for the Government stocks being transferable in the books of the Bank of Ireland, and for the dividends being paid at that bank. The National Debt Act, 1870, may be cited; and, as regards the particular case of Guaranteed 2 ¾per cent. Stock, the Irish Land Act, 1903, Section 31. The Bank Act, 1892, fixes the rate of remuneration payable to the Bank of Ireland for management of the National Debt inscribed in its books. That rate was determined as the result of an inquiry which took into account the work done by the bank in management of the Public Accounts, as well as of the National Debt, and also the benefit to the bank of the use of Government balances. The Act continues in force the rate so fixed up to 31st March, 1912.