§ MR. MEAGHER (Kilkenny, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord -Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware hat there has not been any High Court 105 judicial decision as to the construction of the word "interested" in Section 6, subsection 2, of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906 the governing word as to right of appeal from a Local Government Board inspector's order; whether he will consider the advisability of the provision of machinery by the Local Government Board and County Court Rules for bringing an appeal by an applicant rejected by the inspector as being interested; whether, seeing that these respective rules made no such provision, he will have them amended in the desired manner; and whether, in view of the urgency of pending cases, he will expedite the making of the Amendment in question.
§ MR. BIRRELLNo judicial decision has been given as to the interpretation of the term "person interested" in the subsection quoted in the Question. The generally accepted and indeed obvious interpretation of the term, namely, as meaning a person interested in the lands specified in the Order, has not been questioned in a Court of law. I understand that a proposal to give the labourer a right to appeal against the rejection of his representation for a cottage was fully considered when the Bill was passing through Parliament, and was rejected. The Government are not prepared to introduce the suggested Amendment, for which no necessity has been shown. Its adoption would involve great expense, and would seriously delay if not completely block operations under the Act.