§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) whether the Department has held an inquiry relating to the management of its business by the County Roscommon Agricultural and Technical Committee, and to the conduct of certain officials of that body; whether the inquiry was full, public, and on oath; what the findings were on so much of the matter as was disclosed; and whether it is with his sanction that the person whose conduct was most seriously involved still occupies the same position and receives public money through the Department.
(Answered by Mr. T. W. Russell.) The Department have held no formal inquiry into the matter apparently referred to in this Question. The allegations which concerned the private conduct of an official of the County Roscommon Agricultural and Technical Instruction Committee were not brought formally before the Department but were brought privately under the notice of the Vice-President, who found, on making personal inquiries in Roscommon, that the matter was the subject of legal proceedings. These were pending at the time, and no further information in the matter has been conveyed to the Department. The official in question is an officer of the Roscommon County Committee, and there has never been any information or evidence which would call for the Department's interference with the discretion of the Committee in the matter.