§ MR. HEALYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Is he aware that, at the last meeting of the Donegal Board of Guardians on the 2nd August, a motion in accordance with his proposal to appoint a Catholic assistant teacher for the Donegal Workhouse 100 as a settlement of the case has been rejected by a large majority of the Board; and, in view of the spiritual destitution in which the inmates are left in the Workhouse by the majority of the Guardians, will he, through the Local Government Board, make the appointment by sealed order, and, in case of further hostility by the Guardians, suspend the Board and appoint Vice Guardians in their stead?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER) (for Mr. TREVELYAN)I regret to say that it is a fact that the Guardians, by a majority of 11 to 7, rejected the proposal to appoint an assistant teacher. The Local Government Board have no legal authority to make the appointment themselves by sealed order; and while they consider the action of the Guardians illiberal, yet, as the matter is one in which the Guardians have an explicit discretion left to them by the Poor Law Acts and Regulations, and have exercised that discretion, no case has arisen which would justify the Board in dissolving the Board of Guardians. The Local Government Board will communicate with the Roman Catholic priest of the parish in the hope of being able to make some new arrangement under which he would consent to resume the duties of chaplain.
§ MR. HEALYsaid, that this promise was made several times already; and he hoped, therefore, that the communication would be immediately made.