§ MR. P. MEEHANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the number of unemployed in Ireland, any portion of the funds voted by Parliament for the unemployed will be made available for Ireland; and whether, in view of the urgency of the drainage of the River Barrow, he will recommend some portion of the money to be expended in carrying out the partial drainage works recommended by the drainage committee and approved of by the county engineers of Kildare and Queen's County.
§ MR. BIRRELLA portion of the fund voted by Parliament for the unemployed has already been made available for Dublin and Belfast, and applications from other towns are under consideration. As I have already stated, the object of the grant is to supplement local contributions raised for the purpose of providing employment in those districts in which, owing to severe trade depression temporarily affecting local industries, the able-bodied working men have found themselves suddenly deprived, wholly or in part, of their usual means of earning a livelihood. It would not be possible to make grants to rural districts in which there is only the dearth of work among agricultural labourers usual at this period of the year.