§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Local Government 865 Board have been made aware of the fact that, following the recent inquiry in Charleville in March under the Labourers Acts, forty-two applications for the extra half-acre out of 104 approved by the district council were rejected by the inspector, and that dissatisfaction prevails amongst the deserving labourers of the district owing to the large number of rejections; is the Board aware that the reason assigned by the inspector for the rejection of these forty-two applications is that the present plots were badly kept; that the forty-two rejected applications include those of Messrs. T. Moffit, M. Ryan, P. Cagney, J. Collins, J. O'Gorman, and several others whose plots are considered, as model plots by the judges who inspected them on behalf of the Munster Dairy School, and Agricultural Institute; that Mr. T. Moffit secured a first prize in 1906, and a second prize in 1907, for a well-kept garden, and Mr. M. Ryan a first prize of first class on similar grounds; and whether, in view of these facts, the Board will re-open the inquiry, or take other requisite steps to prevent industrious deserving labourers being deprived of the advantages given to Irish labourers by legislation for the improvement of their conditions of life.
§ MR. BIRRELLIt is the fact that the inspector rejected forty-two applications for additional plots, and in some, but by no means all, of the cases the ground of rejection was that the existing plots were badly kept. In the cases of Moffit and Ryan specially referred to, the applications were disallowed, partly because the existing plots are badly kept, and partly because they are already considerably more than half an acre in extent. Moreover there are less than seven and a half acres in the holding, from which it was proposed to take these and six other new allotments, making four acres in all; manifestly a most unreasonable proposal. The inspector's order was issued in May last. The Local Government Board see no reason why the inquiry should be re-opened, and in any case they have no power to re-open it.
§ MR. BIRRELLNo, in some cases, the reason was that the existing holdings were considerably more than half an acre.