§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been called to the twelfth paragraph of the Order issued by the Local Government Board on the 29th April 1880 commanding relieving officers to post copies of a list of destitute persons relieved cut of the workhouse, with their names, the number of dependent persons of the family, and the residence, "in such public places as the board of guardians shall direct;" if any such order as this has been enforced of late years in Ireland; and, if, having regard to the poverty at present affecting Ireland, and to the danger that persons in temporary want of out-door relief may be deterred from seeking it by the exposure of their names, and of the misery of their families in public places, the Local Government Board will direct the paragraph in question to be modified?
MR. W. E. FOPSTERSir, in the year 1852 an Order was issued by the Local Government Board in Ireland commanding relieving officers to post copies of a list of destitute persons relieved out of the workhouse, with their names, the number of dependent persons of the family, and the residence, "in such public places as the board of guardians shall direct." Owing to the numbers relieved out of the workhouses having been for several years very small, the practice of posting lists of persons relieved fell into abeyance; but in the month of March last it was deemed necessary to remind the Boards of Guardians of the Order. It was thought that the ratepayers ought to know how, and for whom, their money is expended; and though it is the bounden duty of the relieving officer to see that real destitution 783 is relieved, it must not be forgotten that it is necessary to take step3 to prevent imposition.