§ MR. DUFFY (Galway, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the people living in the village of Tawin, near Oranmore, in the South Galway Parliamentary Division, amounting to close on ninety families, are in need of water; that an application, supported by the parish priest, the medical officer of health, and other residents of Tawin and district, was presented to the Rural District Council of Galway asking that a pump should be constructed in the village, and, seeing that this request was refused, whether he will state what steps he will direct the Local Government Board to take to prevent an outbreak of fever in the neighbourhood owing to the comparative absence of a fresh water supply.
§ MR. WYNDHAMThe Local Government Board has been in correspondence 568 with the district council in this matter, but so far the council has taken no action. The Board has no power to take any steps with the view of compelling the council to provide a water supply unless it receives a formal complaint under Section 15 of the Public Health Act, 1896, from the ratepayers. If such a complaint be made to the Board it will receive immediate attention.