Mr. NUGENTasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will state how many men of the Dublin Metropolitan Police have died since the outbreak of the present epidemic; if any move has been made by the authorities to convert any of the police barracks in Dublin into a temporary hospital; if those who are at present laid up with the disease are getting proper medical attention; if the arrangement made for the treatment of 2133W these men is adequate; if it is not possible to arrange for the opening of a temporary hospital, whether he will arrange to have the fares paid to their homes of those sick members of the force who wish to return to their homes, if he is aware that, owing to the present high cost of necessaries and the pay of members of the force, those who have been stricken find it very difficult to provide adequate food and nourishment for themselves during their illness?
§ Mr. SHORTTThere were eight deaths from the epidemic. All serious cases are sent to hospital. In each barrack, rooms or wings of the barracks have been set apart for the use of those afflicted. It would not be possible to devote the whole of any particular barrack for the purposes of a hospital or to fit up, equip, and staff a separate building as a temporary hospital. The three medical officers of the force have been in constant attendance upon the sick men. All men who were willing to submit to it have been inoculated with vaccine. All barracks are disinfected daily and everything that can be done has been done. There is no fund out of which travelling expenses of those members of the force, suffering from illness and wishing to return home, could be paid. The men receive full pay during illness. Medical attendance and medicine being free, the cost of subsistence of men suffering from the epidemic in barracks entails no extra expense.