MR. MAC NEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in 1880, the Government, having regard to the exceptional distress prevailing in the district of Gweedore, were obliged to institute relief works such as road-making; whether in the same locality, in 1884, there was a partial famine, and 70 per cent of the Olphert tenantry receiving poor relief; whether, on account of the threat of Mr. Wybrant Olphert to evict 20 families receiving this relief for non-payment of rent, the arrears of rent and money for the defraying of the costs of legal proceedings were obtained by the charitable subscriptions of the public; whether W. L. Hicks, Esq., Local Government Board Inspector, has been recently investigating the cases of distress, with their accompanying circumstances; whether the Report and recommendations of Mr. Hicks will be laid upon the Table; and does he still adhere to his determination to take no special steps to relieve the distress in Gweedore and Falcarragh?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURLoans appear to have been obtained under the Relief of Distress Act, 1880, for the purpose, among others, of roads within the Union of Dunfanaghy, in which the Gweedore district is situate. It also appears that in 1884 evictions took place on estates, one of which was that of Mr. Olphert, in the Gweedore district; that some of the tenants were reinstated as caretakers; and that, as regards those who had not been so reinstated, a proposal was made on their behalf to have the rents and costs due to Mr. Olphert paid or secured. I am not aware of the proportion of the tenantry then receiving poor relief, or whether the funds then proposed to be used in the settlement had been obtained by public subscription. The Local Government Inspector has recently made inquiry into the circumstances of the people in those parts of Donegal where destitution has been alleged to now exist. He reports, as regards Gweedore, that though there is poverty, as there always has been in the district, yet no exceptional destitution appears to prevail, and he draws attention to the fact that Dunfanaghy Union Workhouse was then almost 1561 empty. It would be contrary to precedent to lay his Report upon the Table. There does not appear, so far as I can learn, to be any state of matters requiring special action at the present time.