asked the Minister for Finance whether he is prepared to reconsider his attitude towards a claim for compensation by Madame Gonne McBride for a motor car seized by the British forces in 1920, and in respect of which a recommendation was made by the Compensation (Ireland) Commission.

I regret that I cannot see any sufficient reason for modifying the decision already arrived at.

Will the Minister say if there were any other cases besides this which the Compensation Committee considered outside the scope of the Terms of Reference where they made recommendations to the Minister, and whether the Minister acted upon the recommendations in any of these cases?

I cannot say if there were any others that were not paid, but the recommendations were acted on in several cases. The recommendations were generally made where very real hardship was caused by the fact that goods or property had been lost or destroyed, and compensation could not be obtained under the Terms of Reference. There were many cases of very great hardship which did not come within the Terms of Reference, and in which no recommendations were made by the Committee. In this case I do not think there was any real hardship.

Would the Minister state the essential difference between cases where ex gratia payments were made and this particular case?

I think there was no hardship in this case.