HC Deb 05 June 1905 vol 147 cc690-1
MR. NANNETTI

To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will give the date on which the attendant in charge of Maurice Sheeban entered the asylum service; who was the responsible official who examined the window bars, and on what date, and will he give a copy of the report sent to this official; whether he is aware that when the patient Feeley, who got through the bars on 28th March, 1902, and was severely injured, told the head attendant and the doctor that it was through the bars he got out, that the head attendant immediately told M'Keough; that M'Keough ascertained on 29th March, 1902, in the presence of Dr. M'Combe and the acting head attendant, that it was true; will he say why alteration was not considered necessary; and whether, seeing that Attendant M'Keough was senior trades attendant in charge, and was under close supervision to compel him to produce work, and that M'Keough holds all the communications that passed between the inspectors and his solicitor, in which no act of insubordination or neglect of duty was mentioned, he will now state the acts of insubordination, with nature and dates, and the particular duty that M'Keough did not satisfactorily discharge.

(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) I informed the hon. Member on 26th ultimo † that this man's dismissal was in no way connected with the escape of convict Sheehan. So far, therefore, as the first part of the present Question is concerned, it appeals to be unnecessary to add anything to the reply already given. Three inquiries on oath were held by the inspectors of lunatic asylums into the conduct of Attendant M'Keough, †(4) Debates, cxlvi., 1533. at each of which he was afforded full opportunity of defending himself. As a result of the third inquiry, he was by direction of the Lord-Lieutenant called upon to resign on the grounds of insubordinate conduct and failure to satisfactory discharge his duties. He refused to resign, and was dismissed. The evidence adduced satisfied the Lord-Lieutenant that the charges were well founded, and I am not prepared, in reply to a Question, to enter into a review of that decision, or to set forth the details of the evidence.