asked the Minister for Finance (a) what amount has been paid out under Dáil Eireann Loan Account; (b) in respect of what amount are there applications under consideration; (c) whether his Department holds receipts in cases where no application has been made, and what steps he has taken to invite applications from such investors, and (d) whether he intends repaying investors who fail to make application.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - DAIL EIREANN LOAN ACCOUNT.
I assume that the question refers to subscriptions to the Internal Loan. The total amount including interest of which payment has been authorised is £261,842. I regret that I am unable to give the Deputy a definite figure in reply to the second part of the question. As regards the third part, an official receipt was issued to every subscriber whose name and address were furnished with the amount of his subscription for registration when the Loan was being raised. In a considerable number of cases receipts were transmitted to my Department without any covering application and in these cases forms of application for repayment were sent to the subscribers for completion and return. With regard to the fourth part of the question, it would not be possible for me to repay subscriptions in cases where applications are not made, as in a number of cases the subscribers have died or have left the country, or otherwise changed their addresses since the date of subscribing. I am considering the question of inserting a further notice in the Press directing the attention of all subscribers or representatives of deceased subscribers to the necessity for making application for repayment.
Is the Minister aware that certain people subscribed to the Loan who did not know that they were subscribing to it at the time, and would he be prepared to notify them that there is money to their credit?
The only thing I could do is to make it as widely known as possible that applications must be made by all people who subscribed, or think they subscribed. If we have details in the office showing that people did subscribe, repayments will be made, but owing to the imperfect character of the register there will be great difficulty in certain cases in identifying the real subscribers. Every effort will, however, be made to make repayment to everybody who subscribed.