HC Deb 26 March 1906 vol 154 cc876-7
MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)

I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether, in view of the fact that when an estate has come under the control of the Court of Chancery and tenants in actual occupation of holdings on it in immediate and unbroken succession to several generations of similar tenants of the same holding take, not of their own motion but by order of the court, court leases of the holdings, they are thereby deprived of the right of getting judicial rents fixed, he will say what statutory authority is there for holding that the circumstances of the estate or of its owners should thus destroy the rights which the tenants would otherwise possess; and, in view of the number of tenants in various parts of Ireland who are excluded from the Land Courts on these grounds, does His Majesty's Government propose to find any remedy.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHERRY,) Liverpool, Exchange

The hon. Member is under a misapprehension as to the law upon this subject. The position of tenants in actual occupation of holdings is not rendered in any way less favourable by reason of the landlord's estate being brought under the control of the court, and no tenant's existing contract of tenancy can be determined by the Court cinder circumstances other than those Tinder which it could be determined by the landlord. The Court never orders existing tenants to take out "Court leases," and no present tenant is ever deprived by the Court of his right to get a fair rent fixed.