§ Mr. LARDNERasked the Chief Secretary whether he will state if a scheme under the Labourers Act has been promoted in the county Monaghan by the Cootehill (No. 2) Rural District Council; and, if so, when was such scheme initiated; how many labourers were proposed to be provided for thereunder; what loan was applied for; what was the date on which it was made; and how many cottages have been erected by the Cootehill (No. 2) Rural District Council to date?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe last scheme of the Cootehill (No. 2) Rural District Council was made on 17th May, 1907, and a local inquiry was held into it in that year. The scheme proposed to provide fifty-one cottages, each with a garden allotment and twenty-three other plots, and the order confirming the scheme authorised the erection of twenty-five cottages, with allotments, and the provision of twelve other plots. The council applied on 6th August, 1909, for a loan of £4,970 to carry out the scheme as confirmed, and the Board sanctioned a loan of £4,800 in October, 1909. None of the authorised cottages had been completed up to 31st March last, but fourteen cottages bad been provided in the district prior to that date under a former scheme.
§ Mr. SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary if he could state the number of tenants of labourers' cottages in the Macroom rural district who sent in representations for the additional half-acre; when were these representations received by the clerk of the rural council; what action was taken upon them by the district council; and, seeing that the additional million will shortly be available for the sufficient financing of The Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, will he recommend that all schemes which have been hung up by district councils may be proceeded with so that the preliminaries necessary to the granting of a loan should be got through with the least possible delay?
§ Mr. BIRRELLIt appears from the Minutes of the Macroom Rural District Council that they have received representations 1222 and propose to consider at an early date the question of formulating a new scheme, but the Local Government Board have no information as to the number of representations lodged either for cottages or for additional half acres, nor are they aware of the precise dates on which they were received by the council. I am bringing in the Labourers Bill to-day, and it is open to the district councils to consider whether they should proceed with any schemes which they may have hung up.