HC Deb 21 February 1901 vol 89 cc695-6
MR. FIELD

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether he is aware that members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police suffering from illness or injury contracted while discharging their duty are sent to hospital at their own expense; (2) whether the sum deducted from their pay is equivalent in the case of sergeants to about half their pay; (3) whether a Dublin policeman, if nursed by his wife, suffers a stoppage of a shilling a day, and if it is expected that he can support his family and pay for medical requisites in these circumstances; (4) whether members of the Royal Irish Constabulary are obliged, in case of sickness requiring hospital treatment, to go to a hospital selected by the authorities, which pro- vides for the religious comfort of no patients except those belonging to the Irish Protestant Church; and (5) whether the Government will inquire into the whole question of treating members of the two forces when ill, and either provide a hospital or else allow the men to select their own hospital and arrange their own terms of payment.

MR. WYNDHAM

Members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary who are sent to hospital are required to defray the hospital charges. In the case of the former force, these charges amount to 2s. a day for single men, and 1s. 6d. for married men. The rates charged to men of the Constabulary treated at Steevens' Hospital are 2s. 3d. for single men and 1s. 4d. for married men. Men of this force treated in the depot are charged 1s. 1d. a day. The stoppage of a shilling, to which reference is made in the third question, is not enforced in all cases. If the man's officer and the doctor con cur in recommending him for exemption, no such stoppage is made. In reply to the fourth question, Steevens' Hospital has been selected by the Constabulary authorities for the treatment of men from that force, except in cases of fever. I understand that clergymen of all denominations have free access to this hospital. It is not proposed to make any alteration in the existing hospital arrangements in either of the two forces.