asked the Minister for Finance whether any measures have been taken by his Department to examine and check the list of those claiming to be ex-members of the Royal Irish Constabulary who are in receipt of ordinary pensions and disbandment pensions, in respect of which it is proposed to repay to the British Government during the current year the sum of £1,205,750, with a view to ascertaining whether such persons are rightfully entitled to the pensions thus paid; whether, if such measures have been taken, the Minister will inform the Dáil what was their nature, and state whether, as a result thereof, any instances of payment arose which his Department queried; whether he will give particulars of the instances, if any, and the respective result in each case; and whether he will state if it is possible for his Department, as a result of such examination, to furnish an estimate of the amount paid by way of pension and compensation allowances to residents in Saorstát Eireann.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - CHECK OF R.I.C. PENSIONS.
It is not the function of the Minister for Finance to examine and check the lists of persons in receipt of pensions or other moneys payable directly or indirectly from the Exchequer of Saorstát Eireann. These duties are carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, who has already informed the Dáil* that as a provisional arrangement the audit of the supplementary pensions of the Irish County Court Judges, the pensions of Civil Servants who retired before the 1st April, 1922, and the pensions, etc., of the Royal Irish Constabulary are paid in the first instance from the British
*Comptroller and Auditor-General's Report, 1922-3, par. 63.
Exchequer, and the accounts are audited by the British Exchequer and Audit Department, and the cost of this is repaid annually from the Vote for the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General. The Public Accounts Committee have been aware of this arrangement from the beginning, and have examined the Accounting Officer for the Superannuation Vote upon it.*
A similar arrangement exists for payments made from our Exchequer and recoverable from Great Britain, such as the payments made from the National Health Vote for Discharged Soldiers' Sanatorium Benefit and from the Land Commission Vote for expenditure on improvement of British Ex-Servicemen's holdings. These payments are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General here and his certificate is accepted by the British Exchequer and Audit Department. The cost of these audits is recovered from Great Britain.
The Comptroller and Auditor-General has the right to examine in detail all payments made by Great Britain and recoverable from the Saorstát, and for this purpose may detach members of his staff for duty in London, if he so wishes. Similarly, the British Comptroller and Auditor-General may send his staff here to examine payments made on his behalf by us.
As regard the final part of the Deputy's question, I have already explained at length in correspondence with him the difficulties in the way of securing reliable information as to the amount paid by way of pension and compensation allowance to ex-members of the Royal Irish Constabulary resident in the Saorstát. I have, however, since been informed by the British Government that, on a very rough calculation, they estimate that £960,000 was so paid in the year ended 31st March, 1928, the Saorstát liability in respect of which amounted to approximately £700,000.