§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will state the 1678 grounds on which he has come to the conclusion that no change should be made in the relations of the Government with the Bank of Ireland, in which the Government accounts are kept and of which the late Treasury Remembrancer in Dublin Castle became a director while still holding that office, and which is given a preference in dealings by the Government to other banking institutions in Ireland, regard being had to the decision in the action of Alderman Corrigan against Mr. Edward R. Read, the Chairman of the late National Assurance Company of Ireland, which was heard in Dublin before Mr. Justice Andrews and a special jury, and to the fact that the National Assurance Company was accommodated by overdrafts up to £90,000 by the Bank of Ireland, by which the directors were enabled to conceal its true position and to postpone its winding-up, to the ruin of the shareholders; and if he will say whether he has considered the effect likely to be produced on public confidence in commercial probity by revelations of so grave a character making no alteration in the attitude of the Government to the Bank of Ireland, as a favoured institution for Government accounts or business.
§ MR. HOBHOUSEMy right hon. friend has nothing to add to his previous answer on this question.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI will repeat the Question to-morrow, when I may be face to face with the right hon. Gentleman.