§ MR. HEALYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, On what authority he stated that there was a Catholic monitress, or any Catholic official, to instruct the Workhouse children in Donegal; if he will give the name of the Catholic monitress, and say if the person in question is a pauper, aged eleven years; whether, if this child be the "Catholic monitress," it is the fact that, on an examination in second class last year by the National School Inspector, she failed to pass; whether she teaches catechism at the suggestion of Mr. M'Farlane, L.G.B. Inspector; and, if not, by whoso instructions she does so; if there is any difficulty in his ascertaining whether the Rev. H. M'Fadden, P.P., after his resignation as chaplain, is now paying a catechist out of his own pocket to instruct pauper children in the parish church; and, whether the spiritual destitution, which prevails in the Donegal Workhouse amongst the Catholic inmates, is such as would justify him, as President of the Local Government Board, in over-riding the authority of the guardians in order to provide a remedy?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe statement as to the employment of a monitress was made on the authority of the Clerk of the Union, and is confirmed by the Chairman of the Board of Guardians. It appears that for many years it has been the custom in the workhouse school, when the schoolmistress is a Protestant, as is now the case, that a senior pupil should act as monitress to hear the Roman Catholic children repeat their Catechism and teach it to the youngest. It is true that the girl who now acts in that capacity is not a senior pupil, being in her 12th year; but she was selected in preference to an older pupil in consequence of her exceptional proficiency in the Catechism, she having been complimented by the parish priest on her superior knowledge of the subject, and given a special prize. It has been the custom for the Roman Catholic chaplain himself to act as catechist, and that duty was partly the ground upon which an application was made for an increase to the chaplain's salary in 1868—a time when the number of Roman Catholic children in the workhouse was much greater than at present. For my own part, I regret, as the Local Government Board regrets, that the Guardians do not see fit to comply with the wishes of the parish priest, and appoint a catechist; but they are exercising a discretion given to them by the law, and my position as President of the Local Government Board gives me no right to override their decision. I do not think, however, that there is such spiritual destitution among the inmates as the hon. Member apprehends. I am informed that the parish priest, though no longer officially connected with the workhouse, is most attentive to those of his flock who are inmates, and that the sick and dying have all the consolations of their religion.
§ MR. O'KELLYsaid, the Government was engaged this Session in passing a Bill to compel Boards of Guardians to give pensions to their officers; and could they not compel the Guardians also to provide for the religious wants of the inmates?
§ MR. TREVELYANIt is one thing to introduce a Bill, and another thing to exercise powers I do not possess.
§ MR. HEALYsaid, he had a telegram from the parish priest in question, saying that he gave the prize on the girl's 1348 recovery from fever, and not as a mark of recognition for her teaching Catechism.