I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £1,450 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1947, for Compensation and other Payments in respect of Personal Injuries sustained by persons, not as members of State Services, as a result of the dropping of bombs by foreign aircraft and of kindred incidents while the State is not engaged in war (No. 19 of 1946).
A Supplementary Estimate was taken last year to enable compensation for personal injuries, recovered from the German Government, in respect of the Campile bombing on the 26th August, 1940, to be distributed amongst the individual claimants. In each of three of the cases, two persons were interested in the distribution and in these cases it was necessary to get their formal proposals as to basis of the division between them. Owing to delays by the claimants in formulating their proposals and having the necessary legal agreements executed, the Paymaster-General's Office was unable to issue the awards until after the close of the financial year 1945-46. The current year's Vote could not bear fully the additional expenditure thus thrown on it and recourse was had to the Contingency Fund to meet the payments in the first instance. A Supplementary Estimate for £1,450 is necessary to complete the repayment to the Contingency Fund.