MR. MAC NEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to a letter of the Rev. Patrick Logan, P.P., Kilcar, County Donegal, dated 29th September, 1890, which appeared in the freeman's Journal, calling attention to the fact that 500 families of his parishioners would by the 1st November not have a potato to eat or to seed the ground in the coming spring; whether, on the 5th November last, the said Rev. P. Logan had an interview with him in Carrick, County Donegal, and handed him a tabulated 480 statement respecting the population of his neighbourhood, and then stated the potato crop in his parish was a complete failure; and whether he assured Father Logan that he was "anxious to aid him through this period of distress "; whether his attention has been directed to another letter of the said Rev. Father Logan in the Irish Times of 15th January, again calling public attention to the acute distress in the district of Kilcar; and whether the Government intend to make any provision for the relief of these destitute people?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am somewhat surprised at this question of the hon. Gentleman, because relief works have been for some weeks actively proceeding in the district referred to. The number of labourers employed on the works on the 21st January was 305.