86. Mr. F. HALL (Dulwich)asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland the numbers of chief and district constabulary inspectors respectively employed in county Car-low and Cork East, and the total number of stations in each of these areas; and can he explain why a county and two district inspectors are required in one case to look after sixteen stations, while in the other one county inspector controls over ninety stations?
§ Mr. BIRRELLIn county Carlow there are one county inspector, two district inspectors, and there are sixteen stations. In Cork, East Riding, there are one county inspector, thirteen district inspectors, and there are ninety-one stations. The Constabulary Statutes provide for the appointment of one county inspector to each county in Ireland, with an extra county inspector for each of the counties Cork, Tipperary and Galway, where there are two ridings. As a county is a geographical unit, and also the unit for the purposes of local administration generally, it 266 has always been considered necessary that there should continue to be a county inspector in command of the police of each county, and that any change in this respect would require legislative authority.