§ MR. J. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state the total number of applications under the various Labourers Acts in the Banbridge Union; the total number of cottages erected; the number of cottages in course of erection; and the number now under consideration.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Local Government Board inform me that the 1676 total number of cottages proposed to be erected in the Banbridge Union under the Labourers Acts was 214. Of these 117 have been authorised, and there are eight with regard to which appeals are pending. Twenty-two cottages authorised under the Orders of 1903 and 1904 have been erected. There has been a difficulty in obtaining tenders for twenty-three cottages authorised under the Order of 1906, for which a loan was sanctioned in November 1907, and the Board hive suggested to the district council the advisability of having some of the houses built by direct labour as an experiment. As regards the remaining seventy-two cottages authorised under the Order of 1908, the Board await the council's application for sanction to the necessary loan.