MR. C. MACVEIGH (Donegal, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the 48 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to a claim made by, and fees paid to, the Local Government Board amounting to £40 2s. for auditing the accounts of the county Donegal committees of agriculture and technical instruction, which fees should be included in the £100 paid annually by the county council to the Local Government Board for auditing the county accounts; and whether, seeing that these fees were illegally charged, he will take steps to have them refunded.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe accounts of the committees affected by the judicial decision in the Cork case will for the present be audited by the Local Government Board without audit fee, pending further consideration of the position. A legal question, however, arises as to whether such committees are entitled to recover from the Board the fees paid for past audits. It is open to the Donegal Committee to take steps to obtain a judicial decision on this point. The Local Government Board have no power, without an order of the Court, to refund the fees in question.