MR. CHARLES RUSSELLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, referring to the persons in prison as suspected persons in Ireland, Whether it is the fact that persons requiring surgical or medical advice are obliged to submit to any personal examination which is deemed necessary (and however delicate the nature of the examination) in the presence of a prison warder; whether this course of proceeding which might subject such persons to 1746 unnecessary humiliation might not be altered; and, whether there is any objection to the production of the Correspondence which has lately passed between Dr. Smyth, of Naas, and the prison authority there on this subject?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. LAW)A prison officer is always present when a medical officer is visiting or prescribing for patients. The only persons who sees prisoners alone are the chaplains. We think, however, that if a prisoner under the Protection of Person and Property (Ireland) Act particularly wishes to see the doctor alone, it might be arranged on an honourable undertaking being given by the doctor that no conversation takes place except directly in reference to the prisoner's health, and that no communications whatever are conveyed to or from the prisoner. My right hon. Friend authorizes me to say that he will see whether such an arrangement cannot be carried out.