§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that representations signed by ratepayers of the following five electoral divisions, Borris in Ossory, Clonmore, Errill, Moneenalassa, Rathsaren, and Templebarry were lodged with the Roscrea Board of Guardians for the erection of twenty-three 1302 labourers' cottages; that in March last the said Board by a majority, which was chiefly made up of ex-officio Guardians decided on only building four new cottages, giving as the only reason for rejecting the other nineteen "that the owners of the land from whom the sites were proposed to be taken objected"; and whether, considering that thirteen of these cottages have been condemned by the medical sanitary officers as unfit for human habitation, the Local Government Board will, under the powers conferred on them by Section 4 of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1891, instruct their Inspector, when holding an inquiry into the four which have already been passed by the Roscrea Board, to also hold a local inquiry concerning the nineteen cottages which the said Guardians have rejected?
§ *MR. JACKSONThe facts are as stated in the first paragraph of the question. The Local Government Board have no information as to the names of the Guardians who voted in the majority. But in no case does the ground for rejecting a cottage as recorded on the Minutes correspond with that quoted in the question, and the case of each cottage was considered separately. The Local Government Board are unable to say whether thirteen of the existing cottages have been condemned. No complaints have been received by the Local Government Board from the persons who signed the representations rejected by the Guardians. In the absence of such complaint, they are not in a position to consider the suggestions in the last paragraph.