§ 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 Mr. Considine, a Local Government Board auditor, in surcharging three members of the Enniskillen Board of Guardians on 2nd February last in the sum of two guineas, part of an amount paid by the guardians to Dr. J. E. Johnston for two weeks, as locum tenens for Dr. Tate, in the Hally-well division of the Enniskillen Union; is he aware that, after advertising and making other efforts, the guardians were unable to procure the services of any medical man at four guineas a week, and were compelled to pay five guineas rather than deprive the poor of the division of medical attendance, and that, owing to letters from the Local Government Board, the guardians refused to pay the full amount agreed on until legal proceedings were initiated; and whether, seeing that no other action was open to the guardians under the circumstances, and that the three members surcharged only officially signed the treasurer's authority of the ordinary sheet of payments, he will take steps to remove the surcharge.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) The Local Government Board cannot express an opinion in respect of the legality or equity of this surcharge until the matter comes before it in the manner prescribed by Statute, namely, on appeal from the persons aggrieved.