§ Mr. KEATINGasked the Chief Secretary whether the Local Government Board for Ireland have prepared a scheme for the erection of labourers' cottages in Ireland under direct labour; and, if so, whether the Board has been asked by several local bodies to embody in the scheme a scale of fees as remuneration under the system to be paid to the councils' engineers and also to clerks of district councils; and whether, if they have done so, he can state the amounts suggested by the Local Government Board for such remuneration?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board have not prepared a scheme for the erection of cottages under the Labourers' Acts by direct labour in preference to the contract system, nor have they issued any general circular recommending the adoption of that course. In some half-dozen rural districts, however, where difficulty was experienced in finding contractors willing to build the cottages on reasonable terms, the Board have assented to the councils having the cottages (or some of them as an experiment) built by means of direct labour under the supervision of the councils' engineers, subject to the observance of certain regulations which the Board have thought it well to lay down respecting the carrying out of such work. Only two 1293W local authorities have made the request referred to in the second portion of the hon. Member's question. The Board do not propose to fix a general scheme of remuneration, but will consider in each case any proposal which the rural district council may submit as regards the remuneration to be allowed to the officers mentioned in the question.