Captain CRAIGasked how much public money has been expended since 1906 in the parishes of Moville Lower and Moville 1961W Upper, in the county Donegal, for the construction of labourers' cottages up to the present time; what class of persons have been placed in them, stating their occupation; what number of them, if any, are genuine agricultural labourers; and, if few or none, will he state what admitted want there was for purely agricultural work in the district necessitating the expenditure of so much of the public funds; and if he will state the amounts of grants for the building and equipment of national schools in the same two parishes since 1906 to the present time, distinguishing the amounts allowed to the managers of the various denominations, respectively?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe records of the Local Government Board relating to Labourers Acts are not kept by parishes, but it would appear that loans amounting to £6,290 for the provision of thirty-seven cottages and plots in the parishes mentioned have been sanctioned under the Act of 1906. The expenditure will no doubt approximate to the amount mentioned above, but the application of the Inishowen Rural District Council for a final instalment to close the loans has not yet been received by the Board. The Board's inspector passed cottages mainly for agricultural and general labourers, but there were also a shoemaker, a blacksmith, and a number of fishermen, and it is presumed that the council, in letting the completed cottages, have given preference to these persons as required by Section 29 of the Labourers Act of 1906. The inspector, before passing these cases, must have been satisfied that the applicants were agricultural labourers within the meaning of Section 4 of the Labourers Act of 1886, or Section 93 of the Land Act of 1903, and were, therefore, eligible for cottages. Two grants have been made since 1906 for the erection of schoolhouses in those parishes, £291 19s. for a schoolhouse under Protestant management, and £494 8s. 9d. for a schoolhouse under Roman Catholic management. Two other grants amounting to £506 6s. 8d. for the erection of two schools under Roman Catholic management in these parishes were made prior to 1906, but the houses were not completed and the final instalments of the grants issued until that year.