§ MR. J. P. FARRELL (Longford, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state on whose recommendation Mr. H. Moriarty has been appointed sub-inspector of police in Ballymahon; where this officer served before; how many police stations he had then under his charge; whether he is aware that whilst in other police districts officers have to inspect twenty stations this officer will only have to inspect five; and on what ground he has been transferred from a harder to an easier district.
§ MR. J. P. FARRELLTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that in couuty Longford there is a county inspector and three district inspectors of constabulary to inspect sixteen police stations, while in many places in Ireland one district inspector has charge of a much larger number of stations than these four officers together; and whether, seeing that the Government policy of reducing the number of these officials is in many cases blocked by the efforts of the constabulary authorities to favour the influential owners of the houses of which these inspectors are tenants, he proposes to take any and, if any, what action in the matter.
1102 (Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The Inspector-General informs me that he, of his own motion, transfered this officer from Belmullet to Ballymahon. At Belmullet the district inspector had charge of eight stations, and at Ballymahon he has charge of six. There is no district in Ireland in which a district inspector would have to inspect as many as twenty stations. Mr. Moriarty was transferred from county Mayo because he was marrying a lady connected with that county, and under the regulations he could no longer serve there. There is, in Longford, as in every other county of Ireland, a county inspector of constabulary; and there are in the county three police districts, each in charge of a district inspector. In two of these districts there are six, and in the third five, police stations. This is about the usual number as compared with other counties. The Inspector-General informs me that he is not aware of any case to which the circumstances mentioned in the concluding part of the second Question applies.