§ MR. D. SHEEHY (Galway, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether he is aware that the medical superintendent of the Richmond Asylum has been complaining about the overcrowded condition of his institution in his annual reports since 1886 to the governors; and that a contract, involving nearly a quarter of a million sterling, on the new asylum at Portrane, was given away by the Board of Control, which is an unrepresentative body, without consultation with the. Board of Governors; (2) whether he will state to the House the amount of money expended on temporary buildings which have been condemned by Dr. Patrick Manson, of London, and by Sir Thornley Stoker, of Dublin; and (3) whether his attention lets been called to the statement in the Inspectors' Report for 1891 that the Richmond Asylum was originally constructed for 600 patients, that there are now considerably over I,800 patients in the Asylum, and that the additional temporary accommodation does not even provide for the increase in the numbers since the Inspectors reported in 1890 that the congestion paralyses every effort to treat the insane?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe fact is as stated in the first part of the first paragraph. It is not true that the contract for the Portrane Asylum was given away by flue Board of Control without consultation with the Board of Governors. The expenditure on the temporary buildings, which were erected with the concurrence of the Governors, amounts to about £12,000. The medical gentlemen referred to considered wooden buildings unsuitable for the, treatment of been-beri patients, but the buildings erected at Richmond have been designed with every possible attention to sanitary requirements, and are, in the opinion of the Inspectors of Lunatics, suitable for the accommodation of the insane. Similar temporary buildings have been erected in London with the concurrence of the English Lunacy Commissioners. The remarks of the Inspectors in their Report of 1891, referred not to the want of day room and dormitory accommodation, but to the deficiency of the administrative departments, which, originally 1463 designed to accommodate 600, were found insufficient for the enlarged institution. But, so far back as 1854, an additional building had been erected for male patients which, with further additions subsequently made, brought the accommodation, long previously to 1891, up to 1,100. The number at present at Richmond and Portrane is 1,821, while there is accommodation at both places, including the temporary structures, for 1,648, made up as follows—accommodation for 1,100 in the permanent buildings at Richmond, and temporary accommodation for 364 at Richmond and for 184 at Portrane. The number in excess of the accommodation is, therefore, 173, and to provide for these accommodation is being prepared, and will be completed in about a month, for 130 at Portrane and for 35 at Richmond. This will still leave a small balance of eight, and at the meeting of the Governors on Tuesday last, a proposal was made by the Inspectors, and approved by the Governors, that further provision should be made for the temporary accommodation of 150 patients, which will leave a safe margin of accommodation under any possible circumstances.