§ MR. DALY (Monaghan, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether he is aware that the Castleblaney Board of Guardians, at their meeting on the 7th instant, refused to pay the sub-stitute of a doctor of one of the dispensary districts of that union when absent at the assizes; and that this is considered a grievance by the Guardians of Castleblaney Union in having to pay the sub-stitute of a doctor who is getting his salary when absent and at the same time earning a fee of £2 2s. per day as well as travelling expenses; and whether he will direct the Local Government Board to order, when dispensary doctors are summoned by the Crown as witnesses, that these doctors will pay their substitutes in the future.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.The facts are as stated in the first paragraph. The Local Government Board have been advised that a doctor 813 who is compelled under subpԓna to attend a Court of Justice is temporarily incapacitated from performing his duties within the meaning of the Relief Acts, and that the Board of Guardians were bound, therefore, to make provision for the care of the sick poor during his absence by employing and paying a temporary substitute. The doctor, if obliged to pay his substitute out of the expenses he receives as witness would, in many cases, be out of pocket by reason of his obedience to the subpœna. The reply to the last paragraph is in the negative.