§ MR. HAYDEN (Devon, Ashburton)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that, in the Mohill (county Leitrim) Poor Law Union, the distribution of voting papers, a duty hitherto performed every year by the men of the Irish Constabulary, has had to be done in the present year by the rate collectors and relieving officers of the Union, in consequence of the employment of the police in executing an extraordinary number of evictions in the county; whether the Union will be recouped the expense of the distribution and collection of the papers; and, how it happened that the police were withdrawn from the performance of their statutory duty, and wholly employed upon evictions?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)Sir, there is no statutory obligation on the police to distribute voting papers. Under their 446 regulations they are directed to render such aid, subject to the condition that it shall interfere with their paramount and special duties. I am informed that other duties absorbed all the spare men in the county of Leitrim and elsewhere between the 17th and 25th of last month; and it was, consequently, impossible to render the Guardians the assistance usually afforded them. I am not aware that there is any provision for recouping the expenses of Guardians in such an instance.