§ DR. THOMPSON (Monaghan, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if, in order to facilitate the rapid sale of land in Ireland under the Land Act of 1903, he will authorise an arrangement by which the Estates Commissioners, on the completion of such sale, will convey to the landlord or his representatives a stamped certificate bearing a face value of the amount which the Government owes the owner, which could be used by him or his representatives as security to raise at a low rate of interest from banks or other financial establishments the cash required to pay off mortgages and other encumbrances.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) Arrangements can, I should hope, be made whereby a certificate stating the amount of the purchase money may be 345 issued; but it must be remembered that under the 24th Section the claims upon the purchase money and the net residue coming to the vendor cannot be definitely and conclusively ascertained till after the purchase money is available for distribution and the land vested in the purchaser. In some cases it might be possible, during the process of investigating the title of the vendor, to ascertain many of those claims and to estimate the residue approximately, but under the most favourable circumstances it could only be an approximation. If certificates in this form can be of any use for the purpose suggested, I shall endeavour to arrange to have them issued. It must, however, be clearly understood that the Government can give no guarantee that the approximate estimate of the vendor's residue is accurate.