Vol. 89 No. 5
I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh that £1,239 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh Márta, 1943, chun Réimhíoca Hghnéitheacha airithe d'aisíoc leis an gCiste Teagmhais.
That a sum not exceeding £1,239 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1943, to repay to the Contingency Fund certain Miscellaneous Advances.
In regard to sub-head 2 —Refund of Stamp Duties paid by the Industrial and Life Assurance Amalgamation Company, Limited—I should like to know who originally paid out that sum of £381 18s. Od.? As the Minister is aware, when these companies came together, it became necessary to ascertain with precision their assets and liabilities with a view to determining the proportion of the share capital of the new company to which the shareholders of the amalgamated company were entitled. I do not know whether the amalgamated company contributed a proportion to the repayment of this sum, but, if they did, has this sum of £381 18s. 0d. been applied to an increase of the assets of the amalgamated companies in the proportion in which they contributed when the payment was first made? I admit freely that it is a very technical question which it is possibly difficult for the Minister to answer offhand, if he had not got notice, and, to tell the truth, I do not want an answer offhand, provided I am given an undertaking that the Minister will look into it and see that equity and justice are done between the amalgamating companies and the Life Assurance Amalgamation Company, Ltd.
As Deputies are aware, the Vote for this service is taken towards the end of the financial year to recoup to the Contingency Fund moneys issued from it since it was last replenished, other than advances for services covered by and repayable out of other Votes. The items of expenditure—seven in all—which necessitate this year's Estimate are shown in Part III.
Item 1—Stamp duty remitted on deeds and other instruments for public Departments, £575 9s. 9d.—is a regular feature of the Vote. The Revenue Commissioners, following a long-established practice, stamp deeds and other instruments for public Departments without insisting on payments of duty, but as there is no power to remit the duty which is imposed by statute, the amount has to be made good to the Revenue and it is more convenient to utilise the Contingency Fund than to make separate provision in Departmental Votes. Most of the instruments for stamping are presented by the Department of Lands and the Department of Education.
Item 2—Refund of stamp duties paid by the Industrial and Life Assurance Amalgamation Company, Ltd., No. 31 of 1938, Section 8 (1) (g) (ii), £381 18s. —the insurance amalgamation scheme to which effect was given by the Insurance (Amendment) Act, 1938, involved the transfer of assets from the various companies participating in the scheme to the Industrial and Life Assurance Amalgamation Company, Ltd. It was inexpedient for practical reasons to exempt the instruments of transfer from stamp duty, and, instead, provision was made in the Act that any stamp duties paid on these instruments by the amalgamation company would be refunded to it out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. The amount to be refunded was determined only recently, and there being no existing Vote out of which it could be met, it was paid, like the stamp duty remitted in item 1, out of the Contingency Fund. I wonder if that meets the Deputy's point.
I did not expect the Parliamentary Secretary to meet my point fully.
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.
