§ MR. DONAL SULLIVAN (Westmeath, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the following advertisement which appeared in The General Advertiser, Dublin, on Saturday last, the 11th instant:—
The Central Lunatic Asylum at Dundrum. A Kitchenmaid (Protestant) is required for the above Asylum;and, whether the Lunatic Asylum at Dundrum is chiefly maintained by Irish Catholic taxpayers; and, if so, on what grounds a Catholic is not as eligible as a Protestant for the appointment referred to in the advertisement?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The advertisement in question was inserted by the Resident Medical Superintendent of the asylum, who, in making the stipulation as to religion, appears to have been influenced by the considerations that there is only one Protestant among the entire female staff of the 776 asylum; that in her absence there would be no person to take the female patients to the Protestant service; and that unless this arrangement were made one of the Catholic nurses would have to absent herself from Mass in the morning in order to take charge of the refractory patients.
§ MR. W. J. CORBET (Wicklow, E.)asked the right hon. Baronet, If this Resident Medical Superintendent was the same with regard to whose conduct a Commission of Inquiry was held some little while ago, and in respect of which the Commissioners were not unanimous, and reported separately; and he wished to ask him also, if a portion of that inquiry—
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! I do not think that that arises in any way out of the Question on the Paper.