MR. CHILLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if it has been brought under his notice that, owing to the widespread prevalence of distress in the towns of the West of Ireland, a Relief Committee, under the Chairmanship of his Lordship, the most Rev. Dr. Comny, Bshop of Killala, has been formed in Ballina, and that a large sum collected in the town has been distributed to meet the existing local distress; whether reports have reached him from the Local Government Board authorities informing him that similar distress prevails in other western towns; and, whether, seeing that the distribution of seed potatoes and the opening or repairing of rural roads will be ineffectual in meeting the wants of the urban poor, the Government will give its immediate attention to the necessity of providing relief for the distress existing in these western towns.
MR. MORLEYDistress amongst labourers in towns is, I regret to say. not confined to the west of Ireland, The relief works started this year are only intended to meet the distress caused among small land-owners by reason of the failure of the potato crop.
§ *MR. CRILLY (Mayo, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he has received resolutions or representations of public meetings or public boards from Belmullet, Killala, Bangor-Erris, and Ballycastle, all in the electoral division of North Mayo, declaring that acute distress existed in these several localities, and calling on the Government to institute relief works; and, if he is prepared to state what measures, if any, the authorities have decided upon to cope with the destitution pointed to in these resolutions and representations? Also 555 if, in estimating the extent and severity of the distress existing in Mayo, he has relied mainly on the Reports of the Local Government Board Inspectors; whether, in order to quicken the preparation and completion of these Reports, any additional Inspectors from the existing staff have been sent to Mayo; and, whether he is in a position to say that the various districts in the Ballina, Killala, and Belmullet Unions, in which it is alleged distress exists, have been visited and reported upon by the Inspectors of the Local Government Board?
*MR. MORLEYReports relative to distress, or apprehended distress, in the west of Ireland have been fairly made to Government by the police and resident magistrates, and have not been confined to the Inspectors of the Local Government Board. The duty of determining the areas where it may be necessary to supplement the machinery of the ordinary Poor Law by the opening of relief works, devolves upon the Local Government Board; and in view of the additional responsibilities devolving upon the Board at the present juncture, three temporary Inspectors have been appointed to assist its ordinary staff. The decision to open relief works was arrived at by the Government towards the end of last year, and works, as I have already stated, will shortly be laid out in the Unions of Ballina, Killala, and Belmullet. Works are already in progress in the Ballinrobe and Westport Unions in the same country.