HC Deb 31 July 1905 vol 150 cc908-9
MR. JOSEPH DEVLIN (Kilkenny, N.)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any complaints had been received from Belfast and Ulster spinners with regard to No. 2 of the new regulations for flax-spinning and weaving factories; if so, what was the nature of them, and whether any official action has been taken regarding them; and whether, in view of the ambiguity of the wording of Regulation No. 2, and with the object of preventing complications and litigation, he will look into it with a view to its alteration.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) A certain number of objections to the regulation referred to have been received from Ulster manufacturers. The regulation prescribes the means of ventilation to be used in rooms in which certain processes are carried on, and the objections taken are partly to the wording of the rule, partly to the means of ventilation prescribed. The regulations are at present in draft only, and the objections are being carefully considered. I hope it will be possible to arrive at a settlement on the points in question; but, should that not be the case, the regulations will be made the subject of an inquiry by a competent person under the provisions of the Act, at which all objectors will be entitled to appear.