MR. O'CONNOR POWERasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, If it is true that many tenant farmers in the district of Addergoole, and Union of Ballina, are now liable for the payment of seed potatoes obtained on credit from the Guardians of the Poor, but which, owing to their inferior character, proved to be useless; whether the Irish Local Government Board have given due consideration to the representations addressed to them on this subject by the Addergoole Relief Committee; and, whether some means can be devised to relieve the tenant farmers, to whom bad and useless seed was distributed, from the payment of a rate levied on account of that seed?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON)Sir, I am informed that Addergoole is in Castlebar Union, and that some tenant farmers complained that the scheme had failed; they were, however, afterwards aided by free grants of seed from charitable sources. Castlebar is one of the Unions in which the payment of the first instalment of the seed rate was postponed for a year, and the Local Government Board have further authorized its collection in four annual instalments. It is not considered that further measures are necessary.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked whether the Government would be prepared to extend the same treatment to all places where bad seed had been given?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON)In the majority of Unions the indulgence has been extended more or less.