Item 3—Recoupment to Drogheda and Dun Laoghaire Corporations of cost of fire brigade services rendered to Belfast following air raids (£141 10s. 1d.). The payments to these two local authorities (Dun Laoghaire, £85 6s. 1d.; Drogheda, £56 4s. 0d.), represent the expenses incurred by them in sending their fire brigades to Belfast following the air raids on that city in April and May, 1941. In view of the special circumstances, it was decided that the expenditure should be borne by the State and, as it was not appropriate to any existing Vote, it was defrayed from the Contingency Fund. Expenses (£355 8s. 2d.) incurred by Dublin Corporation on the same occasion were similarly met out of the Contingency Fund and the amount was recouped to the fund by last year's Vote.
Item 4—Duty chargeable on estate of late High Commissioner for Canada (£93 3s. 6d.). Mr. John Hall Kelly, High Commissioner for Canada, died here in March, 1941. The diplomatic representatives here of external Governments are immune, by diplomatic privilege, from State taxation generally in this country, subject to their Governments being prepared to grant similar concessions to our representatives accredited to them. In accordance with this principle, the death duties payable on Mr. Kelly's estate were remitted, it having been ascertained that reciprocal treatment would be given in the converse case of an Irish High Commissioner accredited to Canada. Probate of the will could not be taken out until the appropriate estate duty had been paid and, there being no existing Vote out of which this could be met, the amount involved was defrayed from the Contingency Fund. Item 5—Travelling Expenses incurred by Deputy (since deceased) prevented by illness from claiming recoupment within statutory period (£16 4s.). The late Deputy Seán Munnelly died in October, 1941, and, subsequently, a claim was received from a motor hirer in respect of journeys made by the Deputy on various dates during the period May to August, 1941, in connection with his duties as a public representative. The claim had not been furnished to the Deputy on the ground that the claimant did not wish to trouble him during his illness. The statutory time limit of 100 days for claiming recoupment of such expenses having expired, they could not be paid out of the usual Vote (House of the Oireachtas), and they were met out of the Contingency Fund, to which non-statutory and ex-gratia payments of unusual character are appropriate.
Item 6—Payment in respect of Property Losses Compensation (re-issue of a cancelled payable order—1936-37) (£14 6s. 4d.). This payment relates to an award made in April, 1935, under the Damage to Property (Compensation) (Amendment) Act, 1933. The payable order issued in December, 1936, went out of date and was later mislaid, and the matter was not brought to notice by the applicant's solicitor until May, 1942. As there was no longer a Vote for Property Losses Compensation — the service having been closed down at the end of 1941-42—the payment was made out of the Contingency Fund.
Item 7—Triplets Bounty (£12)—this, like the stamp duty remissions covered by item 1, is a hardy annual. It represents four payments of £3 each.