HC Deb 06 May 1901 vol 93 cc776-7
DR. AMBROSE (Mayo, W.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the emigration from the province of Munster in the year 1900, namely, 17,933, or 15.3 per 1,000 of the population of the whole province, and, seeing that Munster is, agriculturally, the richest province in Ireland, whether he has any official information showing why the emigration from it is as large as that from the poorest province, Connaught, where the majority of the holdings are not large enough to support a family, and where the fertile portions are in the hands of the minority; and whether he will this session introduce legislation which may induce these emigrants from Ireland to remain at home.

MR. WYNDHAM

There is no official information showing the causes to which this emigration is due, but I conceive it is very largely dependent upon the demand for labour in America. The reply to the last paragraph is in the negative.

An HON. MEMBER

Is it not the fact that the emigration is attributable to the impossibility of living on the land in Ireland?