HC Deb 22 May 1882 vol 269 cc1256-7
MR. VILLIERS STUART

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the statement of the Sub-Commissioners, at Macroom, on the 17th instant, to the effect that an order for building a labourer's cottage on a farm in the neighbourhood had been entirely disregarded by the tenant, the labourer being compelled to live in a wretched shed fixed against one of the fences, and to their complaint that the Land Act furnished them with no means of enforcing such an order; and to the statement, on the same occasion, of Mr. Beytegh, the solicitor, that none of the tenants in the East Riding of the county of Cork had complied with the directions of the Sub-Commissioners to build labourers' cottages; and, whether Her Majesty's Government, with a view to the pacification of discontent in Ireland, would take steps to render the Clauses which constituted the sole provision for amending the condition of farm labourers in Ireland more effective, and, if possible, to extend them?

MR. TREVELYAN

The noble Lord the Member for North Leicestershire (Lord John Manners) puts a Question on the same subject, and I will answer both Questions together. I have not had sufficient time given me to enable me to inquire into the particular case mentioned as having arisen at Macroom; but the Land Commissioners inform me that they have received only one complaint of orders by Sub-Commissioners with respect to labourers' cottages having been disregarded. The Commissioners, however, state that they have reason to believe that these orders have been, to a great extent, neglected. The only penalty for non-compliance, to which the Question of the noble Lord the Member for North Leicestershire refers, is attachment of the person of the disobedient party or sequestration of his goods. There are strong objections to enforcing orders by such means, and it may be found necessary to provide an additional mode of enforcing them by some further legislation. The Land Commissioners would be very happy to make suggestions on the subject, and I will make a minute requesting them to do so accordingly.