§ MR. JAMES O'CONNOR (Wicklow, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether it is a fact that any and, if so, how many of the tenants who have signed agreements to purchase their holdings from Earl Fitzwilliam have been legally proceeded against because of their failure to pay the interest due on the amount of the purchase money; and, if so, whether the Estates Commissioners have made any inquiry into the solvency of those tenants and into their ability to pay the instalments when the sales to them are completed.
* MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform me that out of 655 tenant purchasers on the estate referred to who were liable to interest on the purchase money to November 1st last, all have paid save four, against whom proceedings are pending. The Commissioners make due inquiries into the security for the advances and into the means of the tenants in all cases which do not come within the zones.
§ MR. JAMES O'CONNORI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state how many of the 1,055 tenants who have agreed to purchase their holdings from Earl Fitzwilliam were first-term tenants, how many were second term tenants, how many were non-judicial tenants, and how many of them were non-judicial tenants on January 1st, 1903; and whether any, and, if so, how many signed agreements out of court to become judicial tenants within twelve months previous to the date upon which they signed agreements to purchase.
* MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform mo that of the 1,055 cases mentioned 189 were cases in which judicial rents were fixed or agreed to prior to August, 1896, 754 were fixed or agreed to since August, 1896, and 112 were cases of non-judicial rents. The Commissioners could not, without a detailed examination of the 1,055 agreements, state how many of the tenants were non-judicial on January 1st, 1903, or how many signed agreements out of court to become judicial tenants within twelve months previous to the dates upon which they signed agreements to 380 purchase. Such an examination would involve a great amount of labour and much of the time of the staff to the delay of other current business, and the Commissioners do not consider that any result commensurate with the labour involved would be attained.