HC Deb 09 July 1908 vol 192 cc76-7
MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)

I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether his attention has been called to the conditions under which the potato diggers in Ayrshire and the adjacent counties are housed and fed; whether he is aware that some 2,000 of these workers, male and female, are from Achill Island and neighbouring places in the West of Ireland, that the season begins in June and ends in August, and that the majority of these people are obliged to sleep in barns, byres, cart-sheds, and outhouses, without any provision whatever for the separation of the sexes, with little or no accommodation for cooking or sanitation; and whether, seeing that many of the workers are young girls and boys of from fourteen years of age and upwards, and that as many as twenty or thirty of these sleep together on hay and bits of sacking in an old barn, and that numbers of slum dwellers and tramps are engaged in this work, he will, in the interests of public decency and for the purpose of affording protection to the workers from Ireland, especially the young girls, have inquiries made with a view to the provision of proper accommodation for these workers.

MR. SINCLAIR

My attention has been directed to this matter. I am anxious to do what is possible to bring, about improvement, but it is right that I should say that I must not be taken as endorsing in all particulars or as general the description of these conditions given by the hon. Member. The Local Government Board have held and just concluded an inquiry into the housing of potato diggers in Scotland with a view to the adoption of such improvements as are possible. I am informed that the inquiry has already resulted in some improvement, and I shall confer with the Board as to the adoption of measures to meet the evils referred to in the latter part of the hon. Member's Question.

MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that labour is almost impossible to obtain on any terms whatever, and will he consider the advisability of providing allotments for the villagers so as to induce people to stay on the land?

MR. SINCLAIR

That is a matter which deserves consideration.

MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)

Will the House have an opportunity of seeing the Local Government Board's Report?

MR. SINCLAIR

It is published every year.