HC Deb 24 April 1907 vol 173 cc50-1
MR. SHEEHAN (Cork County, Mid.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether complaints have been made to the Local Government Board of the unsatisfactory manner in which the representations; for labourers' cottages in the Knocklong electoral division of the Kilmaliock union have been dealt with by certain members of the district council; has it been alleged on the part of the applicants for these cottages that particular district councillors have, through motives of personal hostility or otherwise, caused the rejection of representations or the alteration of sites to unsuitable places; have any steps been taken to investigate these complaints; and what right of appeal, if any, have the labourers in these cases.

MR. BIRRELL

The reply to the first two parts of the Question is in the affirmative. The Local Government Board have informed the persons who have complained that the Labourers Acts do not require a district council to adhere to the sites which may be suggested in the representations made to them, and that it is open to any labourer who may feel aggrieved by the action of a district council to appear at the inquiry and lay his complaint before the inspector.