HC Deb 27 February 1899 vol 67 cc619-20
MR. McCARTAN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to the new district councils in Ireland, whether he is aware that, in the following dis- tricts in county Down, Castlewellan with 465 electors, Ballinahinch with 537 electors, Kilkeel with 608 electors, and Moira with 616 electors, three representatives have been allowed for each district, and in Rathfriland, with 620 electors, only two representatives have been allowed: if he will state why Rathfriland is treated thus; and whether he will direct the attention of the Local Government Board to the matter, in order to extend the right of similar representation to Rathfriland?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR

The facts are as stated in the first paragraph. Rathfriland is in Newry Union the other electoral divisions referred to in the Question are in Downpatrick or Lurgan Unions. The claim of Rathfriland Division for increased representation could not be properly determined by comparison with the electoral divisions of other and differently circumstanced unions. The Local Government Board are required by section 23 of the Local Government Act to fix the number of district councillors for each electoral division comprising a municipal town. The representation of the rural divisions, however, is fixed by the statute, and although the Board are given power by the 111th section to increase the number wherever they think the division should be divided, they have not interfered with the general provision of the Act assigning two district councillors to each division, unless the Board of Guardians have called attention to special circumstances in the case of a particular division which appeared to warrant their doing so- The Board of Guardians of Newry Union made no such representation in the case of Rathfriland Division. It is perhaps right to mention that there are about 4,300 electoral divisions in Ireland, and even if the Local Government Board had desired to investigate the circumstances of all these divisions in order to determine the precise number which had a claim to be divided it would have been quite impossible to have done so in time for the first elections. As the notices of election are now posted, no change can be made in the representation of any division for the coming election.