§ MR. JOYCEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether an inquiry has been lately held in Limerick as to the claims made for cottages by the labourers of Singland and Blackboy Pike; and, if so, whether it went to show that a large number of those men were living in houses unfit for human habitation; and what steps, if any, have been taken to remedy such a state of things and to provide cottages and plots for those labourers under the last Labourers Act.
§ MR. BIRRELLAn inquiry was held in March last into a scheme submitted by the Limerick No. 1 Rural District Council for the erection of 326 cottages of which twenty were to be built in the townland of Singland. None of these twenty cottages were sanctioned by the local Government Board Inspector as one of the proposed sites was found to be unsuitable, and the other nineteen were marked on 164 acres of untenanted land, on an estate purchased by the Estates Commissioners, which were required for distribution and have since been allotted among twenty-two tenants on the estate. A number of the applicants for these cottages were shown to be living in houses unfit for habitation. It is for the district council to consider whether they will make a new scheme and provide therein for these labourers.