§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can say under what Act of Parliament or authority subscribing members to the Constabulary Force Fund forfeit all claim to the money stopped from their salaries in case the wives of such members die or the children become over age.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe deductions made from the pay and pensions of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary for the Constabulary Force Fund under the Statutes relating thereto are made available by Section 9 of 29 and 30 Vict., cap. 103, for the relief of the widows and children of the members of such force under such regulations as the Lord-Lieutenant may from time to time make. The statutes make no provision for any refund of contributions to subscribers themselves, and consequently, under the Lord-Lieutenant's regulations, all the receipts from contributions to the fund are appropriated to the widows and orphans who become eligible for grants from the fund. If it were not for the fact that many subscribers to the fund die or leave the force unmarried, or leave no member of their families after them who are entitled to a grant, the very liberal scale of gratuities paid from the fund to those entitled under the rules could not possibly be maintained.
§ MR. SLOANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the fact that the majority of subscribing members to the Constabulary Force Fund are now retired on pension, and that fully three-fourths of the same are anxious to have the fund wound up, he will take the necessary steps to do so.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Constabulary Force Fund is being gradually wound up by meeting its obligations to widows and orphans of subscribers as they arise. 695 This process of winding up was provided by the Act of 1883, which closed the fund to new entrants, and no more summary method of winding it up is possible.
§ MR. SLOANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state the amount of money received into the Royal Irish Constabulary Force Fund from all sources since date of inception; the amount paid out; to whom paid; the amount paid to each person; under what authority, and for what purpose; and what is the exact balance of the fund at present.
§ MR. BIRRELLIt would be quite impossible to give a Return containing the information which the hon. Member asks for, and in any event the Return would serve no useful purpose. The Constabulary Force Fund came into existence in 1836, and the books of that remote period are not now forthcoming. I would, however, refer the hon. Member to Return No. 301 of 1905, and the previous Return of which that is a continuation. These Returns show the receipts and payments from the Fund for each year since 1880. I have no information as to the present balance of the Fund in the hands of the National Debt Commissioners, but in any event this is not a matter which concerns the subscribers, seeing that the surplus, if any, which may remain after the Fund has been wound up must be surrendered to the Exchequer. As the hon. Member has already been informed, a Parliamentary Grant of £150,000 was made in 1891, in order to make the fund solvent, and it was a condition of the grant that any unexpended balance should be surrendered to the Exchequer.
§ MR. SLOANIs there no possibility of getting from the National Debt Commissioners the exact amount of the fund?
§ MR. BIRRELLI will inquire, but I do not see what good it will do for anybody to know.