I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £2,045 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh Márta, 1934, chun go bhféadfaí aisíoc do dhéanamh le taisceoirí i mBanc Sinn Féin.
That a sum not exceeding £2,045 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1934, to enable recoupment to be made to depositors in the Sinn Féin Bank.
This Vote is required in order to enable recoupment to be made to sundry depositors of the unliquidated balances standing in their names in the Sinn Féin Co-operative People's Bank which was wound up under an order of the court in 1927. Amongst the other accounts this bank had held was on current account for the trustees of Dáil Eireann, a sum of £2,397 odd and while it was first considered that any claim thereto should be allowed to stand over until other depositors had received payment of their claims in full the position created by the passing of the Dáil Eireann Loans and Funds Act of 1924 made it obligatory on the Minister for Finance to make due claim to the old Dáil moneys. The Minister was subsequently admitted by the court examiner to rank as preferential creditor, but as it was evident that the payment to him of the amount in full would leave only a negligible sum for distribution to the other depositors, the claim for preferential treatment was not pressed. Ultimately the Minister shared in the general distribution as an ordinary creditor and received a dividend of 10/- in the pound amounting to £1,198 odd which was paid into the Exchequer. As I have already explained, this bank was dissolved by order of the High Court in March, 1925. Many members of the Dáil will remember the circumstances under which it was established and will recollect particularly that the old Sinn Féin organisation had its first and only headquarters in the premises of the bank. The bank, as has been indicated, held a considerable sum of Dáil Eireann moneys on deposit. It was generally associated with the Sinn Féin movement at the time so that during the years in which an attempt was made to overthrow the Irish Republic and suppress the Sinn Féin organisation this bank received considerable and undesirable attention from the British forces in this country so that ultimately the bank was compelled to wind up. For these reasons it is felt not merely by ourselves but by our predecessors that an obligation rests upon the State to recoup so far as it possibly can the depositors for the loss which they incurred through depositing their funds with this bank, particularly having regard to the co-operation given by the bank during the trying period to which I have referred.
The amount of the Estimate is made up of small sums ranging from £186 downwards and includes a sum of £25 for repayment to a few depositors whose claims were not received in time for participation in the distribution of dividends made by the official liquidator. Disbursement of this latter sum will only be made on satisfactory proof of the bona fides of the claim.