§ MR. SAMUEL YOUNG (Cavan, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has received a memorial from 166 residents in the neighbourhood of Bally bay| and Cootehill, county Cavan, complaining of the losses entailed by them every year through the flooding of the Dromore river; whether he is aware that the sufferers employed at their own cost an engineer to draft a drainage scheme, and offered to pay the cost of carrying it out, but that the Board of Works rejected the scheme, and declared themselves unable to suggest any alternative scheme; and what steps the Board of Works now proposes to take.
§ MR. McKENNAI replied to a similar Question by the hon. Member for South Monaghan on the 26th July last, and I have very little to add to the Answer which I then gave.† Although the cost of the scheme, if sanctioned, would have eventually been borne by the owners of the lands affected, a loan would have had to be made in the first instance by the Board of Works, with re-payment over a number of years. As previously stated, the scheme appeared to the Board to be defective, and they assure me that the question of amending
† See (4) Debates, clxi., 1440.348 it was carefully considered and found to be impracticable before the scheme was ultimately rejected. The Board have no power to take further action in the matter.
§ MR. MACVEAGHasked if the Board of Works would allow the local authority to carry out these works?
§ MR. MCKENNAThey will not advance money for this particular scheme, and it is quite open to the owners to put forward another scheme.
§ MR. MACVEAGHWhat is the objection to this scheme?
§ MR. MCKENNAI cannot state that in answer to a Question.
§ MR. MACVEAGHAnd the Board of Works cannot explain it either.