The congested districts of Ireland and how to deal with them

Abstract

The phrase congested districts has acquired in the discussion of Irish problems an almost technical meaning. By the congested districts I understand to be meant those parts of the country which are unable, at least in their present state of development, to employ profitably in their cultivation, or to support by their own produce, the population at present inhabiting them. It has been repeatedly stated by competent witnesses, and cannot, I think, be too strongly impressed on the legislature, that the land problem in these districts is totally different to what it is in the other parts of Ireland; and it has been again and again urged, that Ireland will never be free from agitation and discontent, and that no land legislation can hope to be final, until the question of congestion has been dealt with. I will show further on that Parliament up to the present has made no serious attempt to do so. If we are to have sound and effective land legislation, the problem of over-population in congested districts, and the agrarian question in the rest of Ireland, must be kept distinct.