§ SIR THOMAS LEA. (Londonderry. S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he has seen the Report of its Special Commissioner, published by the British Medical Journal of 1st February, in the Bally-vaughan Workhouse, County Clare, in which the Commissioner, after giving 231 details of the wretchedness, misery, squalor, and filth which prevails, concludes by saying the only suggestion that can be offered is to shut up the house, dissolve the board, and place the inmates where at least they will have humane treatment and the ordinary decencies of life; whether any information as to this state of things was reported previously to the Local Government Board; and, what will the Government do in this case?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI have seen 'the report in question. A sworn Inquiry was held by one of the Local Government Board's inspectors into the allegations contained in the report, and the inspector is of opinion that the report, in many important particulars, is at variance with the facts. The condition of the workhouse had been fully reported on by the inspector previous to the visit of the Commissioner referred to, and while the inspector's reports show that the state of the institution was in some respects satisfactory, and in other respects unsatisfactory, yet a good deal had been done by the Board of Guardians in the carrying out of improvements, and the inspector gives them credit for having evinced an anxiety to do as much for the comfort of the indoor poor as the limited resources of the union would admit. The inspector will continue to do all in his power to urge the guardians to further improve the workhouse.