§ Mr. JOYCEasked the Chief Secretary whether any further steps have been taken by the Irish Local Government Board in regard to the erection of the two cottages passed by the inspector, Mr. M'Caffrey, in the month of February, 1908, at Lisnagry, county Limerick, on the grounds that the houses in which Peter Sullivan and William Boyle and their families lived were condemned by the doctor as unfit for human habitation; can he say what has occurred since to prevent the cottages being erected; have the labourers made repeated application to the district council to proceed with the work and put them in possession of the plots; have the Local Government Board asked what was the cause of the delay, and what answer the council has given; and whether the Local 1402 Government Board will now take action in this matter and have the Act put in force?
§ Mr. BIRRELLAs promised in my reply to the question asked by the hon. Member on 8th July last, the Local Government Board have called the attention of the rural district council to the duty imposed on them by the Labourers Acts of carrying into execution their improvement scheme as confirmed. Since then the council, who are building thirty cottages in a field at Annacotty, in the neighbourhood of Lisnagry, have offered two of them to Sullivan and Boyle, who, however, declined to take them. The council have represented that these thirty cottages are sufficient to supply the wants of the neighbourhood, and have adjourned consideration of the question of building the two cottages in Lisnagry pending completion of the cottages at Annacotty. In these circumstances there are no means at the disposal of the Board by which they can compel the council to immediately proceed with the Lisnagry cottages.