§ MR. O'KELLY (Mayo, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the case of a man named Thomas Oates, of Toberory, Castlerea, who has applied for and been refused a portion of the French Estate recently acquired by the Congested Districts Board; whether, though Thomas Oates, as the son of a tenant on the estate referred to, is a person to whom an advance for the purchase of a parcel of land may be made, he has nevertheless been told by the Estates Commissioners that his application could not be entertained unless he already held land; and what is the explanation of the action of the Estates Commissioners in this case.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The French Estate was purchased with the object of relieving congestion in congested districts. Thomas Oates is neither a landholder nor a resident in a congested district, and the Board are therefore unable to entertain his application.