§ MR. JORDAN (Fermanagh, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to the action of the Local Government Board in refusing to sanction payment; of half-fees of medical practitioners acting as locum tenens in the Hollywell Dispensary District of the Enniskillen Union, county Fermanagh, during the enforced absence of Dr. Tate, the medical officer of the district, because of a serious accident; will he say what are the grounds on which said refusal was based; and whether, in view of the amount of the sum and the poverty of the division, he will instruct the Local Government Board to sanction the payment of the amount in question.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) There is no statutory provision enabling the Board to allow recoupment to the local authority 963 in respect of this service, and the Board is unable, therefore, to sanction the payment.