§ MR. MEAGHER (Kilkenny, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will inquire of the Estates Commissioners if negotiations for the purchase of the Rossmore estate of Purefoy Poe, Esquire, Harley-park, Callan, county Kilkenny, have been completed; if so, has the untenanted land on this estate been included in the purchase; that provision, if any, has been made to restore to their holdings on this estate the representatives of the evicted tenants John Whelan, junior, and John Whelan senior; and if, in the event of the sale of the untenanted lands, due consideration will be given to the enlargement of uneconomic holdings thereon, and the balance, if any, kept in reserve for the restoration to 548 holdings of bona fide evicted tenants, many of whom reside in this district.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The Estates Commissioners inform me that eleven purchase agreements signed by tenants on the estate in question were lodged with them in January last. The lands comprised in the originating application include 147 acres, which appear to be an evicted holding, and which the vendor asks the Commissioners to purchase for distribution by them, and 873 acres consisting of the vendor's demesne, which he proposes to repurchase. No applications for reinstatement have been received from John Whelan, senior, or John Whelan, junior. An application has been received from John Phelan, and this has been referred to an inspector for inquiry and report. The question of the purchase and re-sale of the vendor's demesne and of the untenanted land generally will receive due consideration from the Commissioners when they come to deal with the estate.