Irish Agricultural Organisation Society.

HC Deb 23 April 1913 vol 52 cc371-2W

Mr. MULDOON

asked the Secretary to the Treasury which is the Government Department through which the advance to the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society has been made and which is to be held primarily responsible for the supervision of the expenditure in accordance with the conditions laid down?

Mr. MASTERMAN

The advance will be made through the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

Mr. MULDOON

also asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can lay upon the Table the letter addressed to the Development Commissioners by the committee of the Irish Agricultural Society, in which the assurances required by the Development Commissioners and referred to in the Treasury letter of the 1st April were contained?

Mr. MASTERMAN

The society's letter to which the hon. Member refers deals with a number of matters unconnected with the question of political activity. The only passage bearing on this question was as follows:—Paragraph 6.—I am instructed to give this assurance, and to add that any departure from this fundamental condition of the movement would immediately break up the society. Any indiscretion on the part of a servant, agent, or member of the society would be promptly and adequately dealt with by the committee. The sixth paragraph of the Commissioners' letter, to which the above-quoted paragraph was a reply, ran as follows:— They" (the Commissioners) "presume that they may count on an assurance from the society that it will take no share whatever in controversies involving political partisanship, whether through its agents, spokesmen, or printed publications.

Mr. MULDOON

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the accounts of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society will be subjected to a public audit; and whether that audit will be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee and this House?

Mr. MASTERMAN

I understand that the accounts are audited in the usual manner by a firm of accountants. There is no intention of requiring the audited accounts of the society to be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee.