§ Mr. FIELDasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Government intend to bring in a Bill this Session to extend, with necessary modifications, the Allotments Act to Ireland; and whether he is aware that the House of Commons unanimously passed a Resolution to that effect, and the then Chief Secretary for Ireland, now Lord Morley, promised favourable consideration?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. The greater portion of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908, deals with matters for which provision has already been made in Ireland by the Land Purchase and Labourers Acts, and the remainder of the Act, including its machinery, is unsuited to Irish conditions. The Resolution to which the hon. Member refers was as follows:—
That all the facilities for obtaining land now possessed by England should be at once extended to Ireland.That Resolution was carried on the 13th April, 1894, and I think the hon. Member must admit that as a result of the Land Purchase Acts and Labourers Acts which have been passed since that date, particularly the Labourers Acts of 1906 and 1911, greater facilities for obtaining land are now possessed by Ireland than by England.