HC Deb 06 May 1919 vol 115 cc759-60

The following question stood on the Paper in the name of Mr. MacVEAGH:

28. To ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether his attention has been called to the circumstances of the abduction by the police of a child of eleven years, Timothy Connors, from Greenane, county Tipperary, to Dublin; whether he is aware that no notice of issue by the High Court of a writ of habeas corpus, the child was surreptitiously returned to his parents, and that an affidavit was then sworn by the Assistant Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary that the child was not in his custody or charge; whether he is aware that the Lord Chief Justice severely censured the affidavit as lacking in candour and disrespectful to the Court; whether he can say how such conduct can be reconciled with the statement that the child was arrested in the interests of justice; what action has been taken by the Government in respect of the affidavit sworn by the Assistant Inspector-General; whether the Assistant Inspector-General is still in office; and whether the costs of the legal proceedings will be defrayed by the Assistant Inspector-General or by the taxpayer?

Mr. MacVEAGH

I have received a letter from the Attorney-General for Ireland asking me to postpone this question. It has already been postponed once, and if I put it down again for Thursday next will the Attorney-General assure me that I shall receive an answer?

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND (Mr. A. W. Samuels)

Certainly.

Mr. MacVEAGH

Will the Chief Secretary be here to answer it himself?

Mr. SAMUELS

I shall answer it on Thursday.

Mr. MacVEAGH

Is the Chief Secretary ever coming back, or has he joined the Sinn Feiners?

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