§ MR. J. GILHOOLY (Cork County, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the condition of the people in the Kilkaskin Electoral Division of the Bantry Union; whether he is aware that a number of these people are suffering from typhus fever, and that the Guardians of the Bantry Union unanimously passed a resolution attributing the cause of the disease to want of food; whether he is aware that Colonel Kirkwood, Local Government Inspector, stated last March that distress prevailed in the Kilkaskin Electoral Division of the Bantry Union, and that he would procure employment for the people there; and seeing that the potato crop has been exhausted since last Christmas, what steps will be taken to avert famine and disease from the population of the district referred to?
MR. JOHN MORLEYSeveral reports have been made to the Government regarding the condition of the people in the district mentioned. An outbreak of typhus fever has recently occurred in a portion of this district, and the Guardians have passed a resolution in the terms stated in the question. The Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board has made careful inquiries and reported that the people amongst whom the fever was prevalent had not suffered from want of food or other necessaries. Provisional relief has been given where required, and the outbreak of fever was due, I am formed, to the unsanitary condition of the houses. I have called upon the Inspector for a report as to the third paragraph of the 371 question, and have also asked him to make further inquiry as to the present and future prospects of the poorer classes in this locality.