§ MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney 1324 General for Ireland if his attention. has been called to a statement made by the Rev. John Gleeson, P.P., in which he refers to an alleged failure of the Inebriates Act in Ireland; whether he is aware, at a case tried at Roscrea, county Tipperary, in the spring of this year, such a failure occurred; and whether, if it should prove necessary, he will take steps to have the Act amended.
§ MR. ATKINSONMy attention has been called to a letter of the Rev. Mr. Gleeson, published in the press, in which it is stated that a person cannot be committed to an inebriate reformatory unless he or she be found to be suffering from bodily infirmity. This view is quite erroneous; there is no such requirement in the Statute. The Government have provided a State reformatory for every inebriate who has been convicted of an indictable offence. The power of providing reformatories for habitual drunkards who have not been so convicted is, by the 5th and 9th sections of the Act, conferred upon the county and borough councils and private individuals, not on the executive. The Treasury are empowered to make a weekly grant in aid of 10s. 6d. in respect of each inmate so committed, I regret to say that most, if not all, of the councils have failed to put these powers in force. This is the real cause of any failure that has arisen in the administration of the Act.