§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, in October, 1885, all the necessary notices were served in the Blarney District of the Cork Union upon the ratepayers and all whom it concerned; whether all the forms of application were correctly filled and sent to the clerk of the Cork Union, who placed them before the Board of 192 Guardians; whether all the other necessary preliminaries were duly executed for the erection of 13 labourers' dwellings in the said district, and if, notwithstanding the lapse of a year and a half, nothing has been done towards the erection of these houses; whether the cabins in which the 13 applicants lived were condemned by the sanitary officer as unfit for habitation in October, 1885, and if it is true that since then no attempt has been made to improve those condemned dwellings; whether some of the labourers have on several occasions gone before the Board of Guardians, and were told the Local Government Board blocked the way; and, whether he will call the attention of the Local Government Board to the alleged grievances?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)Any delay which may have occurred in the preliminary proceedings was on the part of the Local Authority. The Local Government Board were not furnished with the necessary documents until August last. They proceeded as quickly as possible; but the scheme for the Union was exceptionally heavy—embracing 349 proposed houses. The Board issued their order two months ago.