§ MR. M. AUSTIN (Limerick, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been directed to a report appearing in the local papers of a meeting of the Limerick Board of Guardians, from which it appears that the Mayor of the city, acting on a certificate from the medical officer of the Union, had two children who were suffering from rabies sent to the Pasteur Institute for treatment; and whether, as President of the Local Government Board, he would see that the expenses in connection with the case would be sanctioned, as compliance with the law by the children becoming inmates of the workhouse in the first 294 instance might have led to fatal results?
MR. J. MORLEYMy attention has been drawn to a newspaper report of the proceedings of the Limerick Guardians at the meeting referred to. Boards of Guardians are legally empowered to send inmates of workhouses to any hospital for special treatment and to pay the incidental expenses. The Pasteur Institute in Paris is recognised as such a special hospital, and the sanction of the Local Government Board is not requisite to the payment of expenses in such cases. There is, however, no legal authority enabling Boards of Guardians to send to hospitals persons who are not workhouse inmates, and no sanction given by the Local Government Board would legalise such, expenditure, or in any way authorise the auditor to pass it.