§ MR. JAMES O'KELLYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether Major French's Cloonyquin estate was sold to the Congested Districts Board about twelve months ago; if so, whether the Board is now prepared to sell the same to the small farmers in the neighbourhood with a view to enlarging their holdings; or whether the Board, failing this, will sell the 450 acres of grass land in the lot to, say, forty respectable young men belonging to the district who are anxious to obtain holdings for themselves.
883 (Answered by Mr. Bryce). The Cloony-quin estate, which is situated in a non-congested district, was bought by the Congested Districts Board for the purpose of migrating to it tenants from the congested districts under the Board's charge. It was bought with funds entirely devoted to the purposes of the Congested Districts Board. It has not yet been legally vested in the Board, and until so vested the lands cannot be disposed of. The Board's powers in dealing with such estates, bought for the relief of congestion, are laid down in the seventy-fifth section of the Irish Land Act, 1903. That section directs the Board to allot the lands primarily to migrants from congested districts; and afterwards, if lands remain over, they may be distributed to small tenants in the neighbourhood. So long as the Board are permitted to substantially fulfil their primary duty in respect of such estates, they are and will continue to be anxious to meet reasonable local claims in a liberal spirit. But it is obvious that if local claims are made predominant as the Question would appear to make them, the Congested Districts Board will be prevented from fulfilling what Parliament has regarded as one of its most important duties, the relief of congestion; may be compelled to abandon the purchase of estates for purposes of migration, and with it the hope of ever solving the problem of uneconomic holdings in the West of Ireland.