§ Mr. SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary whether inquiries will be made of the Macroom Rural District Council as to the cause of the delay in building the 140 cottages in regard to which nothing has been done since they were sanctioned by the Local Government Board for specific labourers in July, 1908; have the labourers for whom these cottages were passed been living for the past five or six years or more in houses which have been condemned by the medical officers of health as unfit for human habitation; will he state the special steps taken by the district council to complete the scheme as soon as possible, or whether any such steps were taken; has any effort been made to have any cottages built by direct labour; and will anything now be done to provide these labourers speedily with sanitary abodes?
§ Mr. BIRRELLAs I have already informed the hon. Member, the Macroom Rural District Council, notwithstanding repeated advertisements, have been unable to obtain contractors for the erection of all the cottages included in their scheme, and are obliged to proceed with such limited number as they may receive lenders for from time to time. No doubt a large proportion of the labourers referred to are still living in houses which have been certified as unfit, but, as already pointed out, ninety-three of the cottages were completed in January last, and the council are endeavouring to complete the scheme as quickly as possible. They have considered the question of building the cottages by direct labour, but without any definite result.
1946W
§ Mr. GUINEYasked how much of the additional £1,000,000 granted by Parliament for the building of labourers' dwellings has been authorised by Provisional Order to be lent; and how is the sum allocated in the four provinces?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe total amount of loans sanctioned by the Local Government Board up to date out of the additional million is £99,255, of which amount Ulster received £60,520, Munster £31,765, Leinster £6,120, and Connaught £850.
§ Mr. GUINEYasked whether it is the intention of the Local Government Board to hold an inquiry into the application of the Kanturk Rural District Council for a loan under the Labourers Acts, the petition for which was lodged on 11th November, 1911?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board do not at present intend to hold the desired inquiry. There are several rural districts from which petitions for Provisional Orders have been lodged where the necessity for additional labourers' cottages is much greater than in Kanturk, in which district 618 cottages had been provided and ten were in course of construction on 31st March last.