§ MR. J. P. FARRELL (Cavan, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with regard to the fact that, in consequence of the decrease of crime in Ireland, 23 county prisons are at present closed up and unoccupied, will he state what was the average cost of the erection of these prisons and what is it now proposed to do with them; and, has the county gaol at Longford been sold as contractor's material; if so, to what fund will the money so obtained be devoted?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOUREleven, not twenty-three, of the county prisons in Ireland have been closed, and are now unoccupied as prisons. The General Prisons Board do not know what was the average cost of erection of these prisons. Two of them have been converted into schools, one is utilised as a military barrack, another as a police barrack, and another is used by the Militia Authorities. The remaining six have been handed back to the Grand Juries of the respective counties and have passed beyond the control of the Prisons Board. The county prison at Longford was handed over to the Grand Jury in 1894, and the Prisons Board have no official knowledge as to what has since become of the building.