asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether with a view to encouraging tillage he will take special steps to enable prospective tenants of labourers' cottages to enter into possession of plots of ground on which cottages are to be erected pending the actual erection and letting of cottages.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Plots for Labourers' Cottages.
This is being done as far as practicable.
What does that mean? Where local authorities have plots for houses not yet built will the tenants be empowered to take over the plots?
On January 31st we circularised all the boards of health and pointed out that where plots of ground had been acquired for the building of cottages, and where the cottages had not yet been built, they should require the prospective occupiers to have the plots tilled.
Is that the case where an order has not been issued?
Can Deputies get copies of the circular?
Where an inquiry was held two months ago will the Minister expedite the issue of an order to acquire the plots?
I wish to ask the Minister if it would be possible under the Emergency Powers Act to make an order empowering boards of health to apply to a district justice for possession of land, in order to facilitate the securing of plots in rural areas where it is difficult to get land for unemployed people? At the moment you cannot get land in some districts.
Is there not a rule in the Minister's Department forbidding the allocation of a cottage until it is built?
Not the land.
How can you determine who the prospective tenant is to be when there is a rule in the Minister's Department that such a person cannot be designated until the cottage is built and advertised?
You can let the land.
It will not prejudice the position.