HC Deb 02 April 1883 vol 277 cc1176-7
MR. O'BRIEN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether a report has been received of an outbreak of scarlatina and diphtheria at Bannaninver, in the parish of Gweedore, county Donegal; whether any Poor Law relief was available, or was in fact administered to the sufferers; whether sickness, attributable to a continuance of bad and insufficient food, prevails among children in a portion of the parish of Glencolumbkille; and, whether the families so afflicted are those of tenants who are living on charitable relief, and who paid a year's rent last winter in order to obtain the benefit of the Arrears Act?

MR. TREVELYAN

The Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board reported a week ago that, having heard it stated that there was an outbreak of diphtheria and scarlatina among the children in Gweedore parish, he went there on the 27th of March specially to make personal inquiry. He found there I was no diphtheria, and that there was scarlatina in two families only. Only one of these families was poor. Medical attendance was not asked for in this case until two children had died, and it was given at once when asked for. Poor Law relief was available, and was, in fact, offered, but declined. With regard to Glencolumbkille, the Medical Inspector reported on Friday last as follows:— I obtained yesterday particulars of all the children said to be ailing, and I visited nearly all of them. I will send a full Report to-night; but I may summarize by saying that there is not one of them dangerously ill at the present time, and there is not a single case of fever or other contagious disease. The full Report subsequently received showed the prevailing affections to be bronchitis and pneumonia. Whether the families in which there are sick children are receiving relief from charitable sources, or whether they qualified by payment of a year's rent for the benefit of the Arrears Act, the Inspector was unable to say; but he states that of the two families attacked by scarlatina in Gweedore one would have no claim whatever on charitable relief, and that at Glencolumbkille only two families out of nine, whose children were ill, would have such a claim.