asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that certain inmates of the Mullingar Mental Home voted at the last Dáil Election in the constituency of Longford-Westmeath and were conducted to the poll in conveyances bearing Fianna Fáil literature; that one of these persons of unsound mind escaped from custody and was subsequently recovered at the public expense, and whether he will have inquiries made in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mental Home Inmates and Elections.
I have communicated with the acting resident medical superintendent of the hospital and have received the following reply:—
"In reply to your' phone message this morning asking for information re patients from this institution voting at the last Dáil Election in the Longford-Westmeath constituency, I beg to state that there is no record in the hospital of patients having left the institution to vote or of patients having voted at the election. As regards the escape of a patient, it is customary for patients to be taken out of the institution by responsible officials, and on the 24th January—the date of the polling—a patient was taken out by an official. The patient escaped while visiting his home with the official. He was brought back in four hours by attendants of the mental hospital."