§ COLONEL DUNNEasked the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he would lay before the House a list of the twenty-two unions in which Her Majesty's Government considered assistance in aid of poor-rates necessary, and whether he would state the reasons that had induced the Government to come to that conclusion? He also asked at what amount of destitution relative to the amount of the rateable value of a district, Government considered that district unable to support the destitution existing in it, and consequently entitled to assistance?
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, that the twenty-two unions which had been considered by the Government to require special assistance out of the 130 unions existing in Ireland, were situated in the west of Ireland; but he did not wish to state more particularly 1066 what those unions were. With regard to the second question of the hon. and gallant Gentleman, it was absolutely impossible to answer it with precision. The Government generally were prepared to afford aid to the local resources which were not sufficient to meet the pressing demands of the indigent poor; but no rule had been laid down as to the relative amount of aid to be afforded in reference to the means of relief possessed by any particular district.