asked the President whether the text of the Financial Agreement of the 12th February, 1923, entered into between the Government of the Saorstát on the one hand and the British Government on the other, and containing, inter alia, provisions as to the collection and disbursement of moneys advanced under the Land Purchase Acts, 1881-1909, will be communicated to the Dáil.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - TEXT OF FINANCIAL AGREEMENT.
The Government have recently been considering this question and several kindred matters. A decision has not yet been reached, but I hope to be able to give the Deputy a definite answer before very long.
Arising out of that reply, is the President aware that a British Statutory Order was enacted on the 27th March, 1923, and that in Section 15 of that Order the following is set out:—
(1) Nothing in this Order shall affect the construction of any expression in the Land Purchase Acts so as to prevent the provision of funds required for the purpose of completing transactions in relation to land in the Irish Free State which are pending under these Acts on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-three.
(2) The powers of the Lord Lieutenant under Section thirty-seven of the Irish Land Act, 1903, shall be exercisable by the Secretary of State, and shall include power with the approval of the Treasury to make regulations for the purpose of determining the persons entitled to draw upon the Land Purchase Fund after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-three in respect of such transactions as aforesaid, and the manner in which drafts may be made.
Are we to understand by the terms of this Order that the British Secretary of State has the power of appointment of the responsible officer to draw upon the Land Purchase Fund, a fund which is operated in this country?
I do not know that I have seen that Order before, and I am not in a position to give an answer now in regard to it. It is unnecessary for me to answer the implication contained in the question; that is, that we have not got complete authority over all our own officials and over our own Fund, except or in so far as that other people may also have a claim on them, as in the case of the Land Purchase Fund.
In respect of this Order will the President take up the question with the British Government?
I do not see any necessity for doing so. I have not seen the Order that the Deputy has quoted; I have only heard what the Deputy has stated. I do not know what purpose would be gained by taking up the matter with the British Government.
I will give the President the Order. It is entitled: "Statutory Rules and Orders, 1923, No. 405, Irish Free State. The Irish Free State (Consequential Adaptation of Enactments) Order, 1923."