§ MR. P. MEEHAN (Queen's County, Leix)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Charles Phelan, of Clopook, was evicted by Lord Lans-downe from his farm in Fallowbeg, Luggacurran, Queen's County; whether Charles Phelan has been reinstated in a farm considerably less than his former holding; whether the Estates Commissioners, acting on the report of their inspector, Mr. Pattison, sanctioned a free grant of £100 to Phelan to build a house on condition that he spent at least £150 on the building, and that the first advance of £50 would be made when he had work done to the value of £75; whether it is impossible for Phelan to carry out this condition; and can he say why Charles Phelan has been treated differently to the other reinstated tenants for whom houses were built.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners inform me that Charles Phelan was evicted from a holding of forty-three acres, now in the occupation of a tenant purchaser, the yearly rent of which was £47. The Comissioners have provided him with a holding of twenty-six acres, subject to an annuity of £14 8s. 8d. Charles Phelan lives in another holding on the estate, of which his brother, an Excise officer, is the 2223 tenant purchaser, and the Commissioners are not prepared to make an advance to him for the building of a house on his own holding unless he contributes to the cost in the manner stated in the Question.