§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLasked the Speaker a Question affecting the privilege of hon. Members. Mr. Ginnell, Member for North Westmeath, was in prison under a sentence of contempt of Court, and he wished to know whether, inasmuch as it was important that hon. Members should be as little as possible obstructed in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, Mr. Ginnell might have free access to Parliamentary Papers and Reports, and whether he might communicate with the officials of the House in respect of putting down Questions on the Paper, the Questions to be sent to the officials without I the supervision of any prison officials reading them. It had always been held, he submitted, in cases of imprisonment for contempt, that the legal right applied only to the detention of the man, and that the greatest privileges should be accorded to him consistent with prison discipline.
§ MR. SPEAKERThe ordinary Papers which are issued to every Member of the House will be issued to the hon. Member for North Westmeath in the usual way. Whether he will be permitted to receive them, or whether he will be entitled to carry on any correspondence is a matter over which I have no control. That must be a matter of prison discipline. If the authorities of the prison in Ireland have no objection to the hon. Member sending Questions to the Table of the House, have no objection to their appearing on the Paper, provided that it does not presuppose or necessitate the appearance of the hon. Member here. The House has been officially informed that the hon. Member cannot be present in his place for some little time, and therefore it will be carrying things to an absurdity if his name appeared on the Paper and I should be asked to call upon him when it is known that he cannot be here to respond. But in other respects, as far as the Chair is concerned, there is no objection to his enjoying the usual privileges.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLreferred to unstarred Questions, and pointed out that personally he had asked several when he had been in Dublin. He thought that the same privilege should be given to Mr. Ginnell. Again, he had seen frequent notices of letters having been addressed 540 to the Speaker from prisoners arrested for contempt of Court. If Mr. Ginnell chose, therefore, to address a letter to the Speaker, he asked that the letter should not pass through the ordinary supervision of the prison officials.
§ MR. SPEAKERI have no control over the prison officials. If the letter reaches me I shall presume that the officials have passed it; in fact, I have received one letter from the hon. Member.