HC Deb 10 March 1902 vol 104 cc888-9
CAPTAIN DONELAN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether general instructions have been issued to Local Government Board Inspectors to furnish Councils concerned with their reasons for rejecting applications in connection with schemes of cottages under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts; and, if not, whether such instructions will be issued.

MR. ATKINSON

It has been the invariable practice of the Local Government Board to communicate the reasons for rejection, in every such case, to the local Council concerned.

MR. CULLINAN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that it is customary for inspectors to the Local Government Board to reject applications made for sites for labourers' cottages on large holdings situate at a distance from public roads, notwithstanding that the approaches to those holdings are the same as used by farmers who live on either side; and whether lie will instruct the inspectors that such sites should not in future be rejected, especially in cases where labourers already live on those holdings.

MR. ATKINSON

Section 6 of the Labourers Act of 1883, as amended by Section 3 of the Act of 1886, prescribes that lands cannot be taken compulsorily except they "immediately adjoin, and are accessible from, a then existing public road. "It is not customary for inspectors to reject applications for cottages merely on the ground of the approach to the site, if such approach is a public road, i.e., one over which an undoubted public right of way exists.

MR. SHEEHAN (Cork County, Mid)

Is it the intention of the Government to introduce legislation this session to amend the Labourers Act?

* MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! That does not arise out of the Question.