§ MR. HEALYasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether his attention has been drawn to the case of Richard Driscoll, tenant; John Hall, landlord, heard by the Land Commission on appeal at their recent Bantry sitting, in which the Sub-Commission having dismissed the tenant's application to fix a fair rent, the Land Commission reversed their decision, but fixed the old rent, £12, as the judicial rent; whether it is the case that on hearing of the appeal, the Court confined themselves exculsively to the facts bearing on the legal question in dispute, and neither heard evidence as to the value of the holding nor sent a Court Valuer to inspect it; whether similarly in the Court below there was no inspection of the holding by the Sub-Commissioners, they having decided to dismiss the case on legal grounds; whether on the hearing of the appeal it appeared in evidence that the landlord in the case is himself a tenant and holds the farm in question, with as much land again, as yearly tenant to Lord Bantry at the rent of £10 10s., being £1 10s. less than the amount which the Land Commission without evidence or inspection fixed as the fair rent of half the land so held; and, whether it is the practice of the Land Commission to fix rents in the absence of evidence, or other data; and, if so, on what principles they ascertain the fair rent in such cases?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. PORTER)Sir, I have 1468 applied to the Land Commission for information as to the facts of this case; and the Commissioners consider it inconsistent with their position and duty to make any statement in answer to Questions in Parliament as to their grounds for deciding cases judicially determined by them. There is an obvious reason for this objection upon their part. It is certainly not the practice of the Land Commission to fix rents in the absence of evidence or other data.
§ MR. HEALYsaid, the statement of the right hon. and learned Gentleman, as the mouthpiece of the Land Commission, was the merest subterfuge. ["Order"]
§ MR. SPEAKERThe hon. Member is not entitled, in asking a Question, to enter into matters of controversy.
§ MR. HEALYThen I beg to give Notice, Mr. Speaker, that on the Irish Votes I will call attention to the fact that the Land Commission decided this case in the absence of evidence; and, knowing nothing about its merits, fixed the rent of the farm at double the figure that the tenant was paying to Lord Bantry.