HC Deb 26 June 1902 vol 110 cc153-4
MR. DELANY (Queen's Co., Ossory)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has received a resolution passed unanimously by the Mountmellick Board of Guardians on the 14th June, protesting against the appointment of a English Protestant lady as inspector of boarded-out children, declining to give any in-formation to this lady, and calling for the appointment of an Irish Roman Catholic, as all the boarded-out children in the union are of that faith; whether he is aware that resolutions in similar terms have been passed by other unions; and will he say what steps he proposes taking in the matter.

MR. WYNDHAM

The present inspector has only very recently been appointed. Until the Government has had some practical experience (after a reasonable interval) of the working of the duties of the officer, the question of the appointment of a second inspector could not be entertained. In order to make a case for a second appointment the first requisite seems to be that all parties should co-operate to prove the usefulness of the first appointment.

MR. DELANY

What salary does this Government proselytiser get?

MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON

Is it not an improper imputation to call this English lady a Government proselytiser?

MR. WYNDHAM

As a matter of fact she is not an English but an Irish lady.

MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)

Can the Chief Secretary state what arc the numbers of Protestant and Roman Catholic boarded-out children in Ireland respectively? I should also like to ask him whether, in order to end this unseemly quarrel, it would not be wise for the Government to stretch a point, and appoint a second inspector.

MR. WYNDHAM

I have all along pointed out that if this appointment is a success I should be prepared to entertain a second appointment. But there must be work for the second officer to do, and those persons who try to demonstrate the uselessness of the first inspector deprive me of the only argument I could have of appointing another.

CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork Co., E.)

Will the right hon. Gentleman reconsider his decision as to the appointment of a lady inspector of workhouses in Ireland?

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! That is a larger question.