§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that advances under the Land Purchase Acts, 1891–6, in the county of Wexford are suspended owing to the number of holdings purchased in that county; whether this suspension applies to agreements already sanctioned; to cases where the agreements have been lodged but have not yet been sanctioned; and to eases where two or three holdings on estates, where the remainder of the holdings have been sold, remaid unsold; and can he state what steps the Government 579 intend to take to enable the occupiers in county Wexford to purchase their holdings.
§ MR. WYNDHAMAdvances under the Land Purchase Acts have been suspended in county Wexford pending the result of inquiries now being made to ascertain whether the limit of advances of guaranteed land stock fixed by the Act of 1891 has been reached in that county. The suspension applies to each class of the cases mentioned in the second paragraph. Pending the result of these inquiries, I am not in a position to make, any statement of policy.