MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the Resolution of the Killiney and Ballybrack Urban District Council, and the letter of the Chairman, Mr. Joseph Ward, which says that the cost of borrowing £629 from the Local Government Board for the purchase of land for the erection of artizans' dwellings, built at the instigation of the Local Government Board, amounted to £250, and that £124 6s. 9d. 668 of that sum represented the cost of a Provisional Order and Confirmation Act; and whether this statement of the total cost is correct; and, if so, whether the Government intend to introduce any legislation to relieve the ratepayers of such burdens, and remove the obstacle which such heavy charges for borrowing place in the way of local authorities providing dwellings for artizans in Ireland?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe amount of the loan estimated to be required for the purpose of carrying out this scheme was £3,000. The costs charged by the Local Government Board to the Killiney township for the Provisional Order of 1898 amounted to £54. This sum covered the Local Government Board's advertising and shorthand writers' notes, arbitrator's fees, and law costs in connection with the preparation of the Order. I may take this opportunity of stating that the Irish Government have arranged to have the Bills for confirming Irish Provisional Orders carried through Parliament in future at the expense of the Local Government Board for Ireland, so far as such Bills are and continue to be unopposed.