HC Deb 18 July 1901 vol 97 cc845-8
MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state how the tenants on the unsold portion of the Kilclooney estate hold the lands; have any of the graziers who previous to last November merely held under agistment contracts been since made tenants for the purpose of selling the lands to them; whether, in view of the proposed legislation extending the powers of the Congested Districts Board, he will ask the Irish Land Commission not to force a sale until the Congested Districts Board has an opportunity of further considering the matter; and whether he †See Debates [Fourth Series], Vol. xciii., page 271. will ask the Congested Districts Board to communicate with the Irish Land Commission on the subject.

The following Question also appeared on the Paper:—

MR. CULLINAN (Tipperary, S.)

To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he-is aware that several tenants on the Irish Land Purchase and Settlement Company's estate at Kilclooney, county Galway, have purchased their holdings, and that some tracts, to the extent of 400 acres, which have been let for grazing purposes, are still unsold; whether he has received a memorial from the principal shareholders in the company praying that the said grazing lands should be sold to the tenants in convenient lots, thus carrying out the original intentions of the company; whether he is aware that the Land Commission, at the request of the late Chief Secretary, sent an inspector to the estate, who reported in favour of the project; and that the tenants agreed to pay whatever price the Land Commission fixed on the grazing traces without in any way interfering with those lands held under regular tenancies; and whether, in view of the proposed legislation to extend the powers of the Congested Districts Board, he will ask the Land Commission to stay the sale of these particular tracts so as to enable the Congested Districts Board to negotiate for the purchase of them.

MR. WYNDHAM

This estate was purchased by the Irish Land Purchase and Settlement Company in 1885. The Land Commission advanced £42,300, of which £35,000 is still due. The company has been wound up in a liquidation suit, and the attention of the Land Commission has been directed on several occasions by the Comptroller and Auditor General to the necessity of realising its securities and paying off the debt. Fifty-two tenants purchased in 1887 and 1891. There remain unsold—

  1. 1. Some sixteen or seventeen small holdings which occupiers have agreed to buy.
  2. 2. (a) 185 acres under a fee farm grant for ever; (b) 305 acres on unexpired lease of thirty-one years from 1880; 847 (c) 126 acres under a statutory tenancy; (d) 234 acres under a yearly tenancy; (e) 260 acres under a sixty-one years lease; (f) 80 acres of which the occupier was stated in the Landed Estates Court Rental, printed twenty years ago, to have been a yearly tenant. He has been in occupation for more than thirty years, and now holds under a court letting. [There can, I think, be no question of using the above six holdings for increasing the size of other holdings.]
  3. 3. Three court agreements, to which the hon. Member for Waterford probably refers, consisting of eighty-seven, sixty-nine, and fourteen acres respectively. The Land Commission was advised that these 170 acres are so far away from the small holdings, and so difficult of access, as to render them unsuitable for the purpose of increasing the latter. Having regard to the fact that the occupiers had held them for ten years and were anxious to buy at good prices, the Commission offered them, and the offer was accepted.
  4. 4. There is a demesne of 264 acres. It does not appear that the company intended to divide this land. On the contrary, it offered the demesne to a single purchaser for £14,000.
This land is let to grazing tenants, but, in any case, no offer to sell to them has been made, nor is it proposed to make one. No question of urgency, therefore, arises.

The Congested Districts Board has been in communication with the Land Commission on the subject, but I cannot undertake to say whether that Board will eventually decide to purchase in view of its obligations to assist migration from a congested district.

MR. JOHN REDMOND

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for sending me a document containing the information he has just read to the House, and also a map which enabled me to follow his answer. I may perhaps be allowed to say that the lots in which my colleagues and myself are mainly interested are three, which apparently the Land Commission has agreed to sell. Will the right hon. Gentleman see that these sales are not confirmed until we have had an opportunity of laying before the Government and the Congested Districts Board as well as the Land Commission, a full statement of our views?

MR. WYNDHAM

I do not think I can give an unconditional undertaking, as it may be that the matter has gone too far. Still, if there is an opportunity for delay, I shall think it only reasonable to avail myself of it.

MR. JOHN REDMOND

Then the right hon. Gentleman will communicate with the Land Commission at once?

MR. WYNDHAM

Yes; and, if they are not irrevocably committed, will delay further proceedings.