asked the Minister for Finance if he will state when it is expected to re-establish the Civil Service Compensation Commission under Article 10 of the Treaty, in view of the fact that the Wylie Commission ceased to function some considerable time past.

The position in this matter, indicated in the statement I made to the House on the 19th June last, still remains, and I am unable to say when the Committee will be reconstituted.

Is the Minister aware that there are applications in for over two years, and does he contend that if the decision in the Wigg and Cochrane case is withheld for a further two years that he can hold office for four years?

I do not think that the decision in the Wigg and Cochrane case is likely to be withheld for anything like the period mentioned by the Deputy, but I am unable to get the Committee to act until it has been decided, because the sort of person whom it is necessary to have as Chairman of the Committee will not act if there is a possibility that the work might be rendered nugatory by a certain decision. I realise that there is a hardship in not being able to act, and in being held up. I think it is impossible to do anything until the case is decided.