§ MR. KNOXI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether, when he stated that Grangegorman Prison is primarily a convict prison, he had considered the fact that the number of convicts confined there are only 33, while the daily average of local prisoners is over 160; (2) can he state how many officers in Grangegorman hold appointments to the convict service, by whom and when the appointments were made, the rank of the officers, and length of service (if any) in a local prison prior to their promotion to the convict prison; (3) is he aware that, there is a statutory distinction between the convict and the local prisons in Ireland: and (4) do convict prisons, established and governed by the Penal Servitude Acts, constitute organisations separate and distinct in law from local, prisons: and, if so, are there two distinct, prisons by statute in Grangegorman — namely, a convict and a local prison?
MR. GERALD BALFORThe numbers mentioned in the first paragraph are substantially accurate. The answer to the third and fourth paragraphs is in the affirmative. It will take some time to collect the information asked for in the second paragraph, and I am not in a position to give it to-day.