§ MR. HEALYasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether it is the case that the Inspector General of Constabulary took a house on lease before it was built, for the use of the police in Armagh, in so secret a manner that none of the residents heard of it until the lease was signed; whether the arrangement was thus carried out in order to prevent the residents from memorialising the Lord Lieutenant to prohibit its being built in their neighbourhood, as they otherwise would have done; whether the County Inspector informed some of the. inhabitants that it was now no use sending a protest to His Excellency, as no attention would be paid to it owing to the lease being signed; whether the sub-inspector lodges in the house of the landlord who has signed the lease; whether his attention has been called to an article in the "Ulster Gazette," showing the strong feeling which exists in the district against the police barracks being erected on this site; and, whether he can direct steps to be taken so that the barracks may be built elsewhere?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. PORTER)I find that the Inspector General authorized the County Inspector to take the house referred to; but the yearly agreement has not been executed, nor will it be until the house is ready for occupation as a barrack. The arrangements were not conducted in a secret manner, and they appeared in the local paper. After authority to take the house had been received, the County Inspector did inform one inhabitant that there was no longer any use in memorializing. The Sub-Inspector lodges in the house of the landlord. The local Constabulary assert that there is no strong feeling in the 1516 district against the proposed barrack, and that there is no other equally suitable site available; and the Town Commissioners, who represent the interests of all parties in the town, have granted the necessary permission to build the barrack upon it.