HC Deb 28 May 1908 vol 189 cc1281-2
MR. J. DEVLIN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has any power to compel the Belfast Corporation to print and publish a sufficient number of copies of the Belfast Health Commission Report to meet the public demand for the same; and, if so, whether he will exercise that power, in view of the complaints from all quarters as to the impossibility of obtaining copies of the Report; and whether, in the meantime, he will order that a copy of the Report be laid upon the Table of the House.

MR. BIRRELL

Two hundred and fifty copies of the Report in question were printed at the expense of the Belfast Corporation, and of these the Local Government Board had 150, nearly all of which have been distributed amongst public bodies and interested persons. The Corporation have declined to incur the expense of printing additional copies, and I have no power to compel them to do so. As, however, the Report is of general interest from the point of view of the public health, I will lay it on the Table at an early date.