§ MR. J. P. FARRELL (Cavan, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that James M'Larney, labourer, of Mullaghboy, Ballymachugh, county Cavan, recently complained to the Cavan Board of Guardians that for the past five years he had been living in an outhouse, from which he had recently been evicted, and was now living in a stable, with his wife and five young children; and that this man had, at a recent inquiry under the Labourers Acts in Cavan Union, had his application for a cottage rejected by the inspector without any further explanation than that it was not required; did the inspector go to see this man's house before arriving at this decision; and would he order a medical inspector of the Local Government Board to visit this man's present habitation, and report upon the state in which he and his family are living?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURA cottage was proposed for this man some time ago on the ground that there was 1105 an insufficiency of labourers' dwellings in the locality, but it was shown that he occupied a house only recently built, and his application was, therefore, rejected. Since then he appears to have been evicted from this house, and the Guardians have informed him that his renewed application for a cottage will be favourably considered as soon as the cottage now about to be erected is built. It is not the practice of the Local Government Board Inspector to examine the dwellings of applicants for cottages where, as in the present case, it is proposed to increase the number of labourers' houses, and even if M'Larney is now living in a house that ought to be condemned he can only be provided with a new cottage in the manner proposed by the Guardians.