asked the Minister for Finance whether he will state what steps are being taken to pay subscribers to the Dáil Loan, 1920, who have lost their receipts or who, for one reason or another, have not been included on the register prepared at that time.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - DÁIL LOAN—LOST RECEIPTS.
I would refer the Deputy to the reply given by me to a question of his on the 11th November last.
I would like to remind the Minister that nothing has been done since, as far as the position in the County Cavan is concerned.
I do not agree with that.
Will the Minister indicate when he will be in a position to make a general statement with regard to the thousands of these cases outstanding? There are at least one thousand outstanding claims in my own county.
I have made two or three statements on the matter and I have not anything to add to these statements at present. The applications which can be substantiated are being dealt with as rapidly as possible. When it is impossible to get any further with the existing machinery we will consider the question of substituting further machinery.
What proof is necessary for those people who say they have subscribed and whose names are not recorded?
Sufficient proof to satisfy me.
Mr. HOGAN
I have known cases where receipts have been sent into the Department and nothing is received but a buff postcard to say the application has been received.
Well, they are being dealt with.
Mr. HOGAN
It is a good job the Estimates are coming on.
Is the Minister prepared to give the Deputies the same facilities as were formerly granted in order to ascertain whether persons' names are, or are not, on the register?
No facilities were formerly granted, and if any information was given to Deputies it was given irregularly and I am glad to hear about it.
Could not some arrangement be made of a more simple character rather than have this elaborate machinery of putting down questions here? Could not some machinery be devised of a more simple character? We are not looking at it from the point of view of controversy, but could not some machinery be designed by which a member of the Dáil would consult regularly with officials of the Minister's Department and so save us a good deal of these questions and all this expense involved in consequence?
An answer which I gave to a question to-day indicates the need for a certain amount of secrecy in regard to the information which the Department possesses. We had the case of a man who applied for repayment of £20. He applied for that money two or three times. Eventually he amended his application to one for £10 and then we were able to repay him. We must not give any publicity to the information we have because, undoubtedly, if too much leaked out, people would be able to put in claims and perhaps to substantiate, as it would appear, claims which were not really genuine. We are prepared to give no information that seems to us to involve any danger of people being able to found claims upon it. Deputies can write and ask for information about particular cases and they will be given the same information in response to a letter as they would be given in response to a question. Perhaps that would be more satisfactory in every case, but I could not agree to allow Deputies to be informed of the particulars we possess with regard to any particular district or particular application.
Deputies have written and they receive information on the subject that is now twelve months old.
I should like to ask the Minister why he happened to come to this decision now? Has he not granted lists of persons who were on the register to members of his own Party during the past few years?
I have consistently refused it.
This question was raised before the Committee of Procedure and Privileges and it will be raised again to-morrow. At that Committee there might be a solution of that question.
Could the Minister for Finance allow some representative of his Department who knows the actual difficulties in the matter to come to that Committee and give us information. There may be some cases in which we could be met and there may be some cases in which we could not be met. The House is here day after day having its time taken up with answers to these questions and all the answers seem to be stereotyped. If there were some attempt made to meet the difficulties it would be appreciated.
I will attend myself.