MR. O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, "Whether it has come to his knowledge that dissatisfaction exists throughout the county Kildare regarding the management of the county infirmary, which is principally sustained by a grant of about £1,300 from the cesspayers; whether it is a fact that at the last March Presentment Sessions the cesspayers refused by ten votes to five to renew the grant; whether Judge Harrison, to whom the governors appealed at the Naas Assizes, decided that the ratepayers were within their right in refusing the presentment; whether at the May Presentment Sessions the cesspayers were overruled by the votes of nine magistrates, four of whom were governors of the infirmary, and the presentment again imposed upon the county; and, whether the ratepayers have any representatives on the Board of Governors, or have any detailed statement of accounts submitted to them?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, the Secretary of the Grand Jury of Kildare informs me that no widespread dissatisfaction with regard to the management of the county infirmary in question exists. Many of the ratepayers have gone to the expense involved in keeping it up. The hon. Member must know that this is not a matter over which the Government has control, the question being purely a local one. It is true that at the Presentment Sessions previous to the Spring Assizes the presentment was rejected, and that when the matter came before the Judge, Chief Justice Morris, be decided that it was not compulsorily. At the next Presentment Sessions it was passed on a division, eight magistrates and two cesspayers voting for it, and eight cesspayers against it. With regard to the last part of the Question, I understand that it is competent for a person to become a governor on the payment of three guineas a-year, and 1338 that there is a statement of accounts supplied to the ratepayers every half-year. The secretary of the infirmary submits vouchers at the Sessions if called on by the ratepayers to do so.
MR. O'BRIENIs it not a fact that that presentment was carried by four magistrates who are also governors of the infirmary?
§ MR. TREVELYANI am not informed on that point.
MR. O'BRIENI will renew the Question then; and I will also ask whether there is any tribunal before which the management of the infirmary may be tried?