§ MR. DOOGAN (Tyrone, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is 854 aware that an application was made on 17th February to have the town of Dungannon constituted an urban sanitary district; whether, as the result of that application, an inquiry was held by Mr. Robert Agnew, Local Government Board inspector, on 21st March, and the approval of the county council was obtained on 2nd June; and whether, in view of the fact that the water supply is deficient, and is at present shut off at six o'clock in the evening, he will take steps to have the Order making Dungannon an urban district expedited.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe facts are correctly stated in the first and second paragraphs. It would not be desirable that any transfer of jurisdiction made by an Order of the Local Government Board should come into operation until the termination of the current financial year, and I am not aware that there is any necessity for pressing forward the consideration of this case. It will be dealt with in its proper turn among other applications of a similar nature. I may add that the Rural District Council have the same powers as the Rural Sanitary Authority in regard to the water supply in the town, and no attempt appears to have been made, until the present time, for the past twenty years to transfer such powers to an urban sanitary authority. The Rural District Council should discharge their duty and remedy any defects in the waterworks under their control.