HC Deb 15 May 1884 vol 288 cc441-2
DR. LYONS

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he will lay upon the Table a Copy of any Rule made by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland by which the medical officers of dispensaries in Ireland are precluded from being placed on the Commission of the Peace; and, if he can inform the House whether any similar disability exists with regard to members of the profession of medicine in England?

MR. TREVELYAN

The rule has not been formulated in precise terms, and I therefore cannot undertake to lay a copy of it on the Table. I have already more than once stated its substance to the House. It amounts simply to this—that the Lord Chancellor does not consider a dispensary doctor to be eligible for appointment to the Commission of the Peace in his own county, as he believes that the respective duties of the two positions are likely to clash. The rule was made in 1872 between the Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Chancellor, at that time Lord O'Hagan. I am not aware that such a rule exists in England. Probably no occasion to consider its desirability has arisen.

DR. LYONS

I beg to give Notice that, in consequence of the answer o the right hon. Gentleman, I will, at the earliest opportunity, call attention to this subject.

MR. HEALY

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether, in case of a stipendiary magistrate, who is paid by the Government, and whose son practices as doctor in the same district over which the father has jurisdiction, the same imputation would not exist which he now makes on the general body of the practitioners in Ireland?

MR. TREVELYAN

It is really not fair to say that I cast any imputation on the Medical Profession of Ireland, because I gave the opinion of the Lord Chancellor that the duty of the two positions referred to would clash. The clashing of duty refers to the fact that a dispensary doctor may be called by any person who obtains a red ticket at any hour of the night or day, in which case the duty would most undoubtedly clash. If the hon. Member gives Notice of a Question I will answer it; but the fact that a rule such as this was made in 1872, and was acted upon ever since by successive Governments, in no sense conveys an imputation on the medical practitioners of Ireland.

MR. GRAY

As the right hon. Gentleman is President of the Irish Local Government Board, and as he says the duty of a magistrate is inconsistent with the duty of a dispensary doctor, does he intend to recommend the Lord Chancellor to remove from the list of magistrates names of the medical officers who now hold the Commission of the Peace?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, it is a very different thing appointing a man afresh and removing from the Bench one who has already been appointed.