§ 33. Mr. SHEEHANasked whether, in March, 1910, the Cork Rural District Council made application to the Local Government Board for sanction to a loan of £41,700 for the erection of 228 cottages authorised under the Labourers Acts; did the Local Government Board then sanction £38,820 for the purpose; have they now refused to sanction the balance of £3,000 required to pay the liabilities incurred by the council in connection with the scheme; whether the district council have kept well within their estimated expenditure; and, seeing that on two previous occasions the Local Government Board sanctioned the advance of balances of loans under similar circumstances, will the same course be now followed so as to avoid the extra cost to the ratepayers involved in borrowing in the open market?
§ Mr. BIRRELLOwing to the large number of pending improvement schemes to be financed out of the additional £1,000,000 provided by the Labourers Act of 1911, the Local Government Board are unable to sanction the payment of the balance required from the Land Commission in connection with the scheme referred to. The rural district council will not suffer any great hardship in having to borrow in the open market the additional £3,000 required, especially as they have admittedly been treated somewhat generously on the occasion of former schemes.