HC Deb 13 April 1905 vol 145 cc83-4
MR. DILLON

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether there are now in existence any instructions from the Irish Government controlling the action of the Estates Commissioners in the work of reinstating evicted tenants or in any other department of their work; and, if so, under what section and sub-section of the Act of 1903 they have been issued; and why have they not been communicated to the House.

MR. ATKINSON

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. friend to a similar Question on the 20th March†. That reply was to the effect that my right hon. friend the Member for Dover had stated on the 20th February ‡ that no regulations of the character mentioned in Section 23, Subsection 8, of the Act had been made, but that communications of a Departmental and confidential character had passed between him and the Commissioners. † See (4) Debates cxliii., 466. ‡ See (4) Debates cxli., 609.

MR. DILLON

But do these confidential communications control the action of the Commissioners in carrying out their work, and, if so, why in fulfilment of the pledge given by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Dover are they not communicated to the House?

MR. ATKINSON

I have said they do not come under that pledge.

MR. DILLON

Then I shall raise this, question at the earliest possible moment.