§ Mr. CLANCYasked the Chief Secretary whether his attention has been drawn to a resolution passed by the South Dublin Rural District Council with reference to the housing of the labourers in certain portions of that district, namely, Palmerston, Crumlin, Rathfarnham, and Clondalkin; whether many houses in those places are overcrowded and are, in consequence, a menace to the health of the inhabitants of the localities generally and have been so described by the medical officers of health; if so, whether that circumstance has been taken into account by the Local Government Board for Ireland in refusing to hold immediately an inquiry into the scheme for the provision of additional dwellings formulated by the district council; and whether, if the entire scheme appears to the Local Government Board to be too large to be inquired into at once with a view to immediate action, so much at least of it as proposes the replacement of insanitary dwellings by new cottages will be immediately considered?
§ Mr. BIRRELLMy attention has been called to the resolution referred to, and the council have been informed that in view of the fact that 476 cottages have already been provided in the South Dublin Rural District, and having regard to the limited fund provided by the Act of 1911, the Local Government Board are unable at present to direct an inquiry into any portion of the council's scheme. In order to secure an equitable allocation of the additional million provided by the Labourers Act of 1911 due regard must be had to the extent to which the Labourers Acts have already been put into operation in the different rural districts the councils of which are applying for authority to provide additional cottages. The order, therefore, in which inquiries will be held into schemes lodged with the Board will not be regulated by the dates of lodgment but by the necessities of the different districts for housing accommodation, taking into account the number of labourers' cottages already provided in each district and the total number of agricultural labourers in the district.