CRIM INAL LNJURIES (IRELAND) BILL. (Hansard, 6 December 1920)

THE EARL OF CRAWFORD
My Lords, this Bill applies to all classes of claims in respect of criminal injuries in Ireland, and it amends the existing enactment in the direction of making it easier for the Government to insure that those claims are duly paid.
Clause 1 enacts that money awarded as compensation for criminal injuries shall be treated as a debt due by the Council and payable by the Council on terms. It accordingly becomes the duty of the Treasurer to hand over out of the moneys in his hands such sums as have been accordingly awarded. The treasurer has to be a banker, and the whole of the revenue is attached in order to secure that this compensation for criminal injuries is duly paid. Subsection (2) permits payments to be made by instalments. Subsection (3) is a repeal subsection, but the matter is replaced by Subsection (1) of this particular clause.
Clause 2 gives power to the Lord Lieutenant to intercept on behalf of the Compensation Fund grants which may be payable to the local authorities under three headings— either from Parliamentary grants or from local taxation account, or from the fund administered by any Government Department. A later subsection gives discretion to the Lord Lieutenant to prescribe the manner in which deductions and payments are to be made, and in line 20, page 3, gives any such order the force of an Act of Parliament. Clause 3 deals with the attachment of the rates, Clause 4 provides that interest at 5 per cent. should be payable, and the rest of the clauses of the Bill are of a technical and consequential character. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.

THE EARL OF MAYO
Does Clause 3 mean that the whole of the rates that are levied can be attached for malicious injury?

THE EARL OF CRAWFORD
Yes; all moneys from Parliamentary grants or from rates can be intercepted at the sources.