§ MR. W. REDMONDI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he will consider the desirability of recommencing the work of drainage in the Scariff District in Clare, as a reproductive means of giving work to the unemployed in that county.
MR. J. MORLEYThis is the first of 16 questions which are addressed to to me on this subject of relieving works in connection with the partial failure of the potato crop. I do not in the least complain of these questions, but I would ask hon. Members from Ireland to bear in mind that the duty of examining into the condition of distress is carried out by the same Department by which that duty was performed on the last occasion, when the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Manchester was Chief Secretary, and the same Inspectors are in charge of the work. The potato failure was very much more severe in 1890 and more general. It is not intended that these works should afford employment to labourers in towns; that has never been the practice on these occasions. The labourers in towns are relieved under the ordinary Poor Law, and the relief that we contemplate is relief of landowners and small land holders only. In answer to the hon. Member's question, I would say that no reports have reached the Local Government Board as to the existence of acute distress in the Scariff Union. On the other hand, the Board point out that the Guardians refused to avail themselves of the seed potatoes supply, stating that they believed the potato crop in the Union was generally very good. The relieving officers have not reported that there is any unusual destitution, and the relief statistics do not show that there has been any marked increase in the number of applications for relief.
§ MR. W. REDMONDAm I to take the right hon. Gentleman's reply as a statement that the drainage works will not be re-opened? Is he aware of the fact that, within the Scariff River Drainage District, the occupiers are willing to enter into any agreement which may be thought necessary to pay the drainage charge on the improved lands; and whether, apart from the distress, in regard to which I cannot agree with him, these works are not of a most useful and reproductive character, and would not, if re-opened, be of the greatest possible advantage in giving employment, not to labourers in the towns, but to the people all through the country district?
MR. J. MORLEYI do not know enough of the particulars to answer the hon. Member. No Government can do everything.