§ MR. J. P. FARRELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether any steps have been taken to ascertain or check the recent expenditure on buildings in Mullingar Asylum; whether in many cases the Governors were never consulted, but simply ordered to get these works done by the Board of Control; and whether, in cases where, under the 76th Section of the Local Government Act, county councils amalgamate unions for the purposes of creating auxiliary asylums, the county which withdraws its pauper lunatics from Mullingar Asylum will still have to continue to pay off the building charges incurred.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURA financial statement of the expenditure on buildings at the Mullingar Asylum is being prepared, and will be forwarded to the Asylum Committee. The Board of Control has not in any case ordered the Governors to undertake works at this asylum, and in no case have works been carried out without previous conference or consultation with the Governors, and without obtaining their general approval of the works. In the event of a county council establishing an auxiliary asylum under the enactment referred to, such auxiliary asylum would be exclusively appropriated to Chronic harmless lunatics. While this arrangement would tend to relieve the congestion of the county asylum and facilitate the classification of curable and incurable cases, it would in no way affect the liability of the county for the maintenance of its county asylum or the debts and liabilities already incurred by the county in respect of the asylum.