§ MR. DOLAN (Leitrim, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that some months ago a circular letter was addressed by the Local Government Board for Ireland to the clerks of unions, town clerks, and other public officers responsible for the preparation of the lists of voters and claimants, directing them to have inserted in the supplemental lists the names of persons occupying rooms over which their landlords, although residing upon the premises, do not exercise any control; whether he is aware that, notwithstanding this circular, the requisition forms which have been served upon inhabitant householders in the urban district of Enniskillen contain the following instruction: that if the landlord of a house let out in separate tenements lives in the house he must not return the names of the occupiers of tenements in the house; and whether, seeing that the supplemental lists are prepared from the requisition forms, and that this instruction may have the effect of disfranchising a number of occupiers of rooms who would be entitled to votes under the Kent v. Fittall decision, upon which the direction of the Local Government Board was based, the Local Government Board will take steps to have the names of all such persons placed on the supplemental lists.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I understand that the facts are stated in the 740 Question with substantial accuracy. I am advised that there will be no necessary disfranchisement of persons as the result of what has happened at Enniskillen, because any persons who may have been omitted from the return can make claims before the revising barrister. The Local Government Board have no power to take the steps suggested in the concluding part of the Question.