HC Deb 25 June 1903 vol 124 cc555-6
MR. JOHN O'DONNELL (Mayo, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the names of His Majesty's prisons in Ireland where the floors of the cells are still flagged; and whether, if there are any prisons where this condition of things exists, he will advise the General Prisons Board to put in a boarded flooring instead.

THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. WYNDHAM,) Dover

There are four prisons in Ireland in which the cells, or some of them, have stone floors. They are at Belfast, Cork, Londonderry and Tullamore. Boarded cell-floors are no longer laid down in any new work either in Ireland or England. They are held to be objectionable from several points of view. I am informed there are at least sixteen English prisons with flagged cells.

SIR WILFRID LAWSON (Cornwall, Camborne)

Has the right hon. Gentleman ever been in gaol?

[No answer was returned.]