§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to paragraphs IV., VI., and VIII. of the Report of the Estates Commissioners, in which they report the total failure of the Act to deal with congested estates, and the improvement of estates and untenanted land; and whether, in view of the promise made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Dover during the debate on the Act of 1903, the Government will take immediate steps so to amend the Act as to make it possible for the Estates Commissioners to deal with the congested areas in Ireland.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) My attention has been called to the paragraphs mentioned, but I cannot accept the conclusion which the hon. Member draws from them. He does not specify the 1117 promises to which he refers or indicate where they may be found. I find reported at pages 1578, 1579, of the Parliamentary Debates, Fourth Series, Vol. 124, the following remarks of my right hon. friend:—"When the State was conferring fresh rights and creating credit facilities it meant to have a say in the conduct of a policy intended to level up the bad part of the country and to cure congestion. His opinion was that the policy would meet with success." If these be the passages referred to they certainly do not support the construction placed upon them in the Question.