§ DR. AMBROSE (Mayo, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to the action of the Congested Districts Board in giving sums of money to landholders on the Stoney Estate, county Mayo, on condition that they would surrender their holdings; have those tenants been supplied by the Board with other holdings in return for the surrendered ones; and, if so, are the new holdings larger than the old or surrendered ones; if they have not been supplied with new and larger holdings, can he explain the action of the Board in purchasing the old ones and clearing out the tenants therefrom.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) A portion of this estate, consisting of the townland of Murrevagh (extent 200 to 300 acres), was extremely congested when the Board purchased the property. This townland was occupied by upwards of fifty tenants, each of whom held on an average from twenty to thirty separate plots. The Board purchased the interests of sixteen of these small tenants, seven of whom were aged men and women unable to work their holdings, and the remainder either had other holdings or had made up their minds to sell and leave the district. The Board have not supplied any of these persons with new holdings. The object in buying them out was to enable the Board to increase the holdings of those who remained.