§ Colonel NEWMANasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the statement in the Dail on Tuesday the 27th ultimo of the President to the effect that pre-Truce holders of awards for damage to property, where such awards had not been defended by the local authorities, might obtain redress from a Compensation Commission whether he interprets this statement as meaning that the Free State Government technically repudiates the legality of the awards made in undefended cases to British subjects domiciled in Ireland by British Courts of Justice; and is to his intention to take the matter up immediately with the Free State Government?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREI presume that the hon. and gallant Member refers to a reply given in the Dail by the President to a question addressed to him on the subject of compensation, in which he stated that
where decrees which were defended by the county council concerned were obtained in the circumstances mentioned" (i.e.. before 11th July, 1921) "payments are at present in course of issue. Where such decrees hare not been obtained the sufferers may obtain redress through the Compensation Commission.The hon. and gallant Member will observe that the President did not refer to cases in which decrees had been awarded by the Courts without a defence having been entered by the local authority, and the second and third parts of his question do not therefore arise.