§ MR. P. MEEHANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that for the last thirty years the medical and sanitary officers within the flooded area of the River Barrow have declared that pulmonary diseases, consumption, pneumonia, and typhus fever, which were rife in their districts, were caused by the annual flooding from the River Barrow; whether he is aware if the flooding from' this river is becoming more widespread and destructive every year; whether the Government intend to take any steps to cope with this evil; whether the highest medical and sanitary authorities have declared that the effects of the annual flooding from the River Barrow is destructive alike of the health and property of the people and a breeding ground for tuberculosis; and whether expert engineering authority has declared that it is impossible for local effort to successfully cope with the evil.
§ MR. BIRRELLI regret that I can add nothing to my replies to previous Questions on this subject, in which I stated that having regard to the many other projects now afoot for expenditure in Ireland, the Government could hold out no present hope of obtaining a grant from Parliament for the drainage of the Barrow.