HC Deb 17 February 1887 vol 310 cc1750-1
MR. W. J. CORBET (Wicklow, E.)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is a fact that a labourer named Waters, living in Newtown Mount Kennedy, County Wicklow, whose house was certified by the sanitary officer as unfit for human habitation, applied to the Board of Guardians, Rathdrum Union, for a cottage under the Act; whether his application was granted and a cottage built for him amongst others; and, whether the cottage intended in the first instance for Waters was assigned to an employé of one of the Guardians?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)

The Local Government Board have submitted a Report from the Clerk of the Union from which it appears that the statement in the first paragraph of the Question is correct. But cottages were built to supply the wants of the locality, and no cottage was intended expressly for any individual. A person employed by one of the Guardians was preferred to Waters as a tenant, because he was living in lodgings. The Local Government Board have no power to interfere with the discretion of the Guardians in the matter.