asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that the repayment of loans for the purchase of additional half-acre plots for cottiers in the area, negotiated by the Kilmallock District Council in 1912, has been completed since last September, and if he will state what authority, if any, there is for the County Limerick Board of Health in continuing to demand payment of 15/- per year as heretofore in respect of those plots from the occupying tenants.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Payment for Labourers' Plots.
A loan of £10,000 was obtained in 1915 by the Kilmallock Rural District Council for the purchase of 470 allotments to be let to agricultural labourers in the district. It was repayable in 17 years at 4 per cent. and appears to have been paid off in 1932.
The board of health and public assistance is empowered by the Labourers Acts, which incorporate portion of the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act (Ireland), 1860, to charge rents for all lettings made under the Labourers Acts. The allotments are the property of the board. The payments at the rate of 15/- a year per allotment by the tenants did not cover the outgoings of the local authority during the currency of the loan.