§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he will produce or give a reference to the special 596W rules under which sick insured persons are dealt with under the exceptional system of certification enforced by the Irish Insurance Commissioners contrary to the wishes of those persons and the opinion of the medical profession; why the rules, if there be such, provide no remedy for those cases in which poor labourers entitled to sick benefit have been unable to get it and unable to get the nourishment their medical attendants prescribed from inability to travel to a distant certifier; why they provide no remedy for a poor man's wife, declared by the nurse who attended her in her confinement to be in need of nourishment, but unable to obtain maternity benefit from inability to pay the nurse's fee pending the receipt of that benefit; and whether the proposed revision of arrangements will cover such cases?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe nature of the existing system of certification was fully described in my reply to a question by the hon. Member on the 3rd March, and on the 21st instant the hon. Member was informed that the question of revising the present arrangements was under consideration. In any such revision due weight would be given to the special points of difficulty which have been discovered by experience, and I should be glad to make inquiry into any specific case which the hon. Member may have in mind.