.
VI
POOR EELIEF (IRELAND) INQUIRY COMMISSION.
Authoriza¬
tion of
Out-door
relief by
Local
Govern¬
ment Board.
Instruc¬
tional letter
of Local
Govern¬
ment Board.
Appp.ndix
B.
Proceeding
of Guar¬
dians.
Commence¬
ment of
Relief
Works.
Ev. 4185, et
To the second part of this Statute we are not called upon to refer, but with respect to
Part I. we think it will be convenient, before dealing with the manner in which its pro¬
visions were fulfilled, to cite briefly the principal features of the enactments which it
contained.
By the second section of the Act, the Local Government Board were empowered to
authorise the Board of Guardians of any Union to administer out-door relief in food or
fuel to poor persons under such conditions as they might see fit to prescribe.
The third section authorised the grants to be made, the totaV amount not exceeding
twenty thousand pounds to any of the six Unions named in the Schedule to the Act,
viz.:—Belmullet, Clifden, Galway, Oughterard, Swineford, Westporr, "to aid in defray¬
ing the charge of any electoral division or divisions in the Union ; having regard to the
financial condition, and the pressure of distress within the limits of such electoral
division or divisions."
By a sub-section of the same clause, the Lord Lieutenant was empowered to make
special provision for the relief of the poor in any island within the Scheduled Unions in
such manner as he might consider expedient. It was not, however, found necessary to
put this sub-section into operation.
Administration of the Poor Relief Act.
In consequence of representations which were made to the Local Government Board
towards the end of April as to the prevalence of severe distress in the Scheduled
Unions, the Board anticipated the passing of the Act by authorising the Guardians of
Belmullet, Clifden, Oughterard, and Westport Unions, on the 20th of April, of Swin-
ford Union on the 28th of the same month, and of Galway on the 5th May, to
administer out-door relief in food or fuel to poor persons, subject to the following
conditions:—
I. That no able-bodied person who shall be in employment, should receive relief
in food under the authority of their letter.
II, That every able bodied male person who shall receive relief in food under
the authority of their letter should, so far as practicable, be set to perform a
task of work during eight hours of every day, for which he received such
relief.
This letter was accompanied by a circular, Appendix B, calUng the Guardians' attention
to the necessity for exercising the extended powers with caution, and a due regard for
the interests of the ratepayers as well as of the destitute poor. The circular further ex¬
plained the principles upon which the labour test was imposed, and urged upon the
Guardians the propriety of appointing a sufficient number of superintendents of labour
or temporary Believing Officers, and concluded by laying stress on the fact that grants
would only be given to supplement the resources of a division, when it was ascertained
that the expenditure could not be met by means of rates which might be collected in
such division.
The formal Order of the Local Government Board followed on the 11th of May, and
was accompanied by a letter, impressing on the Guardians that no person could " legally
be relieved except by authority of the Guardians previously given in each case, or by
the Relieving Officer, provisionally, in a case of sudden and urgent necessity," and
reiterating the substance of the concluding paragraph of their circular of the 20th of
April as to the only circumstances upon which the grants would be given in aid of any
Electoral Division.
The Guardians on receiving the first intimation of the authority which had been
granted to them to put the Act in force, adopted a practically uniform course of proce¬
dure in each of the Scheduled Unions.
In the first place anangements were made for the supply of meal in the different
localities by the appointment of contractors, either for each division, or for the Union
generally, or, as in the case of Galway, by issuing open tickets payable at any shop
where the holders might present them. The Local Guardians were in some instances the
real though not the nominal contractors, a proceeding which in our opinion was
extremely improper although not absolutely contrary to the letter of the law. The
works to be carried out were then decided upon, and temporary Relieving Officers were
appointed who in some Unions were subject to the supervision of the permanent officers,
and in others were entrusted with complete and independent powers for their respective
districts. Instructions were then given to the Relieving Officers to open the works
which bad been selected, and to employ provisionally such of the applicants for relief as
they considered destitute
