§ MR. D. CRILLY (Mayo, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether he is aware that the cost of outdoor relief in the Belmullet Union during the months of May and June averaged £23 10s. per week, while the average for the corresponding months of last year was only £2 5s.; that the cost of outdoor relief for the week ending the 19th June was £37 10s., while the cost in the corresponding week of 1896 was only £3 2s. 6d.; and (2) whether, seeing that that this large increase is due to the existence of famine and fever in the Union, it is the intention of the Government to provide any special relief to ease the burden of the local rates?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe statistics of the outdoor relief expenditure given in the first paragraph of the Question are practically correct. With regard to the second paragraph, as the relief expenditure will be, to a great extent, a charge on the Union at large, the poorer Electoral Divisions, where distress prevails, will only have to pay a small portion of the cost; but whether the total expenditure will involve a rate over the entire Union next year of uncollectable dimensions is a matter which can best be decided when the Estimate for the new rate is submitted at the conclusion of the financial year ending 29th September next.
§ MR. CRILLYasked whether the right hon. Gentleman was aware that the conclusion of the Local Board of Guardians was that at the end of the financial year in September the rate would be 12s 8d. in the £1?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThat may possibly be the conclusion of the Board of Guardians, but when the time comes the Government will, of course, consider the matter.
§ MR. CRILLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he can issue instructions to the Local Government Board officials that, in view of the outbreak of typhus fever on the Island of Iniskea, in the Belmullet Union, a temporary structure 1360 to serve the purposes of a hospital should be erected on the island, so that the fever-stricken persons might be isolated from the other portion of the population, and might, without danger to those who have escaped the epidemic, be nursed back to convalescence?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Board of Guardians have already applied to the Commissioners of National Education for the use of the school-house on the island for the purpose indicated in the Question, and this application, which was supported by the Local Government Board, has, I understand, been complied with. The Board have further advised the Guardians of their powers, under Section 155 of the Public Health Act, to provide temporary places for the treatment and reception of the sick or convalescent, and the Congested Districts Board have placed at the disposal of the Guardians a large shed on the island for this purpose.
§ MR. CRILLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland what is his latest information as to the condition of Miss Kenny and Miss M'Alister, the two trained nurses belonging to the City of Dublin Hospital, who are now suffering from fever in the Belmullet Hospital, as a consequence of attending the fever stricken patients on the Island of Iniskea?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURYesterday I was informed that one of the nurses was doing well, but that the condition of the other was not satisfactory.
§ MR. CRILLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) what number of special nurses have been, and are, engaged in attending the fever patients on Iniskea Island; and (2) what has been the cost per week to the Belmullet Union of dealing with the epidemic?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe staff of paid nurses at present on the island consists of two trained and two untrained nurses. The nursing is under the direction of a temporary medical officer specially engaged for attending to the island during the continuance of the fever. The guardians have power to appoint as many additional nurses as the medical staff recommends, and the inspectors of the Local Government Board are advising them in the matter 1361 It is impossible to give the information indicated in the second paragraph without making local inquiry which may occupy some days.
§ MR. CRILLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state if the epidemic of typhus fever which has now for some time been raging on the island of Iniskea, in the Belmullet Union, has extended to the mainland; and, if so, can he give the number of cases reported by the authorities as having broken out on the mainland?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURTwo cases of fever were reported to the Local Government Board last week as having occurred on the mainland and both were removed to hospital. The Board have not since heard of the occurrence of other cases.