§ DR. AMBROSE (Mayo, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to the resolution of the Mount-mellick Board of Guardians, reaffirming its approval of the Report of the Poor Law Reform (Ireland) Commission, and stating that, in view of this Report, the board consider the preparation of Returns, extending over the entire year ending 31st March, 1908, asked for by the Royal Commission on Poor Law and Relief of Distress, unnecessary, since very full evidence, statistical and other, has been quite recently given to the Irish Commission; and, furthermore, the board is of opinion that compliance with the circular of the Local Government Board, dated 27th March, 1907, requiring daily preparation of these Returns for the year, would impose on their officials a task that would seriously hinder them in the discharge of their ordinary duties, and calls for its withdrawal; and will he say that, in case compliance with the 515 circular is insisted on, due provision will be made for suitable remuneration to the officials concerned for this extra duty.
§ (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Royal Commission on Poor Laws and the Unemployed have informed the Local Government Board that they find it absolutely necessary for the purpose of their inquiry that they should be furnished with a reliable record of the actual pauperism of the United Kingdom for one year. Neither the published statistics of the Local Government Board nor the Returns prepared by the Viceregal Commission give this information with sufficient accuracy, for although the total number of admissions during the year and the average daily number are annually published, the same persons are in some cases re-admitted many times during the year, and on each occasion are recorded as new cases. Thus the total number of admissions during the year is largely in excess of the actual number of individual persons who obtained poor law relief. It is this latter information which the Commission requires, and the workhouse officials should have no difficulty in entering each day the particulars of admissions and discharges upon the form required for the Commission's Return. It should occupy the master a very few minutes, and is a mere matter of copying. No objection has been raised to the keeping of this Return except in Mountmellick and one or two other unions. The Return will form the basis upon which the Royal Commission will estimate the extent of the problem the State has to deal with, and the Local Government Boardfeel that they are bound to require it to be prepared for every union in Ireland without exception.