§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a labourer, named Patrick M'Callion, of Bellaghy electoral division, 1028 county Derry, who is the chief support of his mother and sister, has for six years past been an applicant for a labourer's cottage to the Magherafelt board of guardians, the house he has occupied being unfit for human habitation, and of which the landlord is a prominent member of the Magherafelt board of guardians, and that the last refusal conveyed to M'Callion, dated 17th October last, was on the ground that he was unmarried; and whether, in view of the fact that this man is supporting his mother and sister in an unsanitary house, he will take steps to have him provided with a cottage without further delay by the Magherafelt board of guardians.
§ (Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The following are the facts as known to the Local Government Board: Patrick M'Callion, who is unmarried, lives with his mother and sister, and his application for a cottage appears to have been approved of by the rural district council about two years ago. The house in which they live is situated on the farm of one of the members of the council, and was condemned by the medical officer as unfit for human habitation. The site chosen by the council for a new cottage for M'Callion was one of two proposed by them on a farm of twenty-eight acres, and the occupier strongly objected to give more than one site, contending that undue injury would be caused thereby to his holding. The inspector who held the local inquiry into the scheme rejected M'Callion's application on the grounds that the occupier was giving one site for a more deserving case (the other applicant having ten in family, and his house having been condemned), and that there was a very good house and garden, close to the site, which M'Callion could occupy if he chose. It is open to the council to include a fresh representation from M'Callion in any scheme they may make under the new Act.