§ Sir THOMAS ESMONDEasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state the terms of the instructions issued by the Treasury recently to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland on the subject of loans in Ireland?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe issue of loans in Ireland is the subject of correspondence between the Treasury and the Board of Works, which is still continuing. As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, the Board of Works is empowered to issue loans under some forty different Acts, and the instructions given in regard to each particular loan or class of loans must depend partly on the circumstances of each case. Generally speaking, these instructions are based on the principle that the advances from the Local Loans Fund in the year beginning August last must be restricted within the maximum limit of advances to be made by the Board of Works fixed by the Public Works Loan Act, 1914, and that within this limit advances should be confined as far as possible to works of necessity which will obviate or relieve distress from unemployment, preference being given to those which (in view of the percentage of expenditure on labour) will have the largest effect in this way. The same principle is being adopted in regard to issues by the Public Works Loan Board in Great Britain. The instructions given in regard to loans under the Land Improvement Acts and the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, were stated in 569W the reply to the question put by the hon. Member for South Wexford on the 16th instant.