HC Deb 09 September 1886 vol 308 cc1727-8
MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W., and Sligo, S.)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Lord Lieutenant has considered a Memorial addressed to His Excellency on the 24th ult. by the Governing Body of the Belfast Royal Hospital, representing that the hospital is entirely supported by voluntary contributions; that no Government grant has ever been made to it; that it relieves the suffering without regard to religion or party; that during the recent riots 369 patients, suffering from gunshot and other wounds and injuries, were received and carefully attended to at a cost to the hospital of £800; that the deficit upon the present year amounts to £1,100; and that the straitened condition of trade allows of no hope that the extra expenditure can be met by additional voluntary contributions; and, whether, as prayed in the Memorial, a Supplementary Estimate will be submitted to the House for a Grant in aid of the Belfast Royal Hospital?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W)

, in reply, said, the Government received and carefully considered the Memorial mentioned by the hon. Member. While, however, they gladly recognized the benefit and assistance derived from the Belfast Royal Hospital, they did not feel themselves in a position to give a favourable reply to the appeal for aid. To do so would not be in accordance with the precedents relating to hospitals generally in the United Kingdom. The only place in which grants of this kind had been made to hospitals was Dublin, and it did not seem at all desirable to extend that principle.

MR. SEXTON

gave Notice that on the Motion for going into Committee of Supply on the Civil Service Estimates he would move that a Supplementary Estimate should be presented as a Vote in aid of the Belfast Royal Hospital.

MR. T. P. O'CONNOR (Liverpool, Scotland)

asked if the right hon. Gentleman was not aware that four or five years ago £1,500 was granted for the purpose of paying the expenses of a doctor who attended a landlord who had been severely injured, and whether the persons that were injured in Belfast were not just as much victims as the landlords were?

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

Payments to hospitals and payments to doctors are not the same thing.