§ MR. CRILLY (Mayo, N.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Board of Work have refused to grant the sum required for purchase of site and preparation of lease for teachers' residences in Ireland, though offered the same security as for the ordinary building grant; whether £250 is the maximum grant; and, if so, what objection could there be to give the purchase money when the total does not exceed £250; whether, in future; draft forms of lease will be supplied by the Board of Works rather than have managers to pay from private sources of teachers to pay out of their slender incomes the extraordinary amount occasionally asked by solicitors for writing out of lease; and, whether the Treasury will at once authorise the Board of Works to advance the necessary sum for site and lease?
THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. JACKSON)(who replied) (Leeds, N.)said: The Board have no record of an application for a loan for the purchase of a site for a teacher's residence They would not refuse to recommend a loan being made for the purchase of a site conjointly with a loan for the erection of a residence on it, provided the total cost did not exceed the maximum grant of £250. A loan for the purchase of a site alone is open to the objection that a residence may never be built or it. The landlord's solicitor, according to professional practice, should prepare the lease of a site; and, therefore managers are not provided with draft forms of leases; but, in any case, a manager would not be relieved from the necessity of employing a solicitor to ascertain the title or right of the grantor to make the proposed lease—a duty which the Board of Works could no undertake.