§ MR. LONSDALETo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of 1264 Ireland whether his attention has been called to a resolution passed by the Cahirciveen District Council and Board of Guardians on 26th July, 1905, pledging itself in future to give no position within its gift to any but Nationalists who are members of the United Irish League and Gaelic League; whether he has any information as to the number of other Irish bodies who have passed similar resolutions; and whether the Local Government Board will restrain district councils and boards of guardians from taking a course which necessarily imposes disabilities upon a large section of the Irish people for political reasons.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) Notice of motion to the effect stated appeared on the minutes of the Cahirciveen District Council of 12th July last, but there is no subsequent entry to show that the matter was further dealt with. Without an exhaustive search through the minutes of all the local authorities in Ireland, the Local Government Board are unable to say what similar resolutions have been passed. A general resolution of this nature would not, in the opinion of the Local Government Board, be binding on any future meeting of the board of guardians or rural district council. The Board have no authority to interfere with the rural district councils in these matters; but if boards of guardians were, in advertising vacant posts, to add restrictive conditions of the kind referred to, the Local Government Board would have power to remonstrate, on the ground that the field of selection ought not to be narrowed by excluding candidates qualified by character and capacity.