§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland—(1) whether Messrs. Kelly and Agnew, representing the Local Government Board, inspected labourers' dwellings in the Castlefin and Cloughard Electoral Divisions in County Donegal the year before last; (2) whether a scheme was made for building a number of cottages to replace those condemned as unfit for habitation in each of those divisions; and (3) what is the cause of the delay in erecting them?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe reply to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. A scheme was made for the erection of 13 cottages in the Union, four of which were to be in Cloughard Electoral Division. None were proposed to be built in Castlefin Division, but having regard to the proximity of the sites of the four cottages mentioned to Castlefin Division, that Division and Cloughard Division were combined into one area of charge for the expenses of the scheme so far as it related to those four cottages. I do not understand that there has been any exceptional cause for delay beyond pressure of work on the Inspector, and the fact that the loans originally applied for were found to be insufficient and fresh applications had to be made to the Treasury. All the requisite preliminaries are now practically completed, and the Inspector will advertise for tenders for the erection of the cottages at an early date.