HC Deb 01 August 1887 vol 318 cc712-3
MR. CONDON (Tipperary, E.)

asked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether, under the allotment sections of the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1885 and 1886, the Irish Boards of Poor Law Guardians have power to provide half an acre of land for the benefit of any agricultural labourers (as defined by the Acts) residing within the limits of an urban sanitary district within the union?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. GIBSON) (Liverpool, Walton)

The question of the hon. Member does not state any facts or relate to any case; it invites an abstract opinion on a point of law, and an opinion so given may be misleading, as the hon. Member's mind may be addressed to some point not present in my mind. Speaking generally, the Labourers Acts seem intended for the benefit of labourers residing in the sanitary district. It would not seem right that a Rural Sanitary Authority, who had to provide these lands, should incur expense for the benefit of men living in a district over which they had no control.

MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)

I would like to ask the Attorney General for Ireland, If an agricultural labourer happens to reside in an urban sanitary district, if the Board of Guardians are to be debarred from giving him the benefits of the Labourers Act, however much they may have desired it?

MR. GIBSON

I have given my opinion as to the construction of the Act. The expense of these allotments falls entirely on the Rural Sanitary Authorities; and, in my opinion, the expenses cannot be borne for the benefit of persons living in an urban district which in no way contributes. The labourers ought to live in the district which, is subject to the rate.

MR. T. C. HARRINGTON (Dublin, Harbour)

asked, whether the meaning of the Act was not this—that a person who lived in the locality was entitled to the benefit of the Act by the erection of a cottage; and that in this matter more regard was had as to where he was actually living before the cottage was built, not to where he might come from?

MR. GIBSON

The question which is now asked me has no reference to the Question on the Paper. The Question on the Paper is, whether labourers who live in an urban sanitary district may receives allotments in a rural sanitary district which will have to pay for those allowances; and I have said I do not think they can.