COLONEL NOLANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to the fact that admission to Irish lunatic asylums is regulated wholly by magistrates; also, seeing that regulations for the administration of those asylums are framed by the Local Government Board to such an extent as to transfer the real control of administration and expenses to the Irish Government, would the Irish Government simplify the existing rules as to the care of lunatics by taking over in name as well as in fact the whole administration and undertaking to maintain the asylums from the Exchequer.
§ * THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. WYNDHAM,) DoverIt is true that the majority of committals to Irish District lunatic asylums are made by magistrates, but provision is also made in the statutory rules for admission under other forms, and in some districts these forms are largely used. The regulations for the administration of the asylums are not framed by the Local Government Board, but by the local committees of management, subject to the approval of the Lord Lieutenant. Where such regulations have not been framed by local 701 committees the older regulations issued by the Lord Lieutenant in Council continue in force. The suggestion as to State control of the asylums raises an issue of such magnitude as to require more time for its consideration than I have been able to give to it in the brief interval of a few hours since this question was placed on the Paper.