§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDY (Cavan, W.)To ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he is aware that agreements fixing a fair rent in the County Courts in Ireland twenty years ago are sent to the Public Record Office, Four Courts, Dublin, and that to procure a copy of same costs 3s. 6d., whilst in the ordinary way copies of these documents are supplied for 1s.; does the same charge apply in the case of County Court; fair-rent orders; and, in view of the fact that this charge often presses hardly on poor tenants, will he secure that in future a uniform charge of 1s. be made for copies of orders or agreements, no matter when filed.
§ (Answered by Mr. Cherry.) I am informed by the Land Commission that they understand that records of the Clerks of the Crown and Peace for each county, when more than twenty years old, are sent to the Public Records Office of Ireland year by year under the warrant of the Master of the Rolls, and that the fees for certified copies of such documents have been fixed, pursuant to statute, at 6d. per folio of seventy-two words. These fees could only be altered by the Master of the Rolls with Treasury sanction. Copies of agreements fixing fair rents filed in the County Courts are not very numerous. As a rule they contain four 1487 folios, in which case the charge would be 2s. each. When such fair-rent agreements are filed in the Land Commission, copies under the seal of the Commission can be obtained for 1s. each. Similarly, while the original agreements remain with the Clerks of the Crown and Peace, they are bound by the rules of the Land Commission to furnish copies at 1s. each, and it is their duty to send copies for recording by the Land Commission. The hon. Member does not indicate for what purpose it is necessary that tenants requiring fair-rent agreements which are more than twenty years old should go to the Public Records Office.- If this were explained the Land Commissioners would be placed in a better position to report on the question raised.