§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the estate owned by the Cookenden and Carey syndicate in county Cavan is largely composed of uneconomic holdings, and considerable portions of it congested; is he aware that these impoverished tenants are being warned to pay their old rack rents and arrears, and in view of the fact that the sale of this estate has been refused by the Estates Commissioners will some protection be afforded so as to avoid the whole district from being depopulated; and will he say why the Commissioners refused to allow the sale to go through.
MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the facts are as stated in the first part of the Question; but they have no knowledge as to the tenants being called upon to pay rent and arrears. When the proposed sale of the estate in parts was before the Commissioners they considered the Report of their inspector; and in the exercise of their discretion, and having regard to the economic conditions of the holdings, they refused to declare the lands offered for sale to be separate "estates" for the purposes of the Act of 1903. The Commissioners, however, will be prepared to purchase the entire estate, with a view to the re-sale of the holdings to the tenants, if the owners should be willing to sell under Section 5 of the Act.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYAnd do the Government in the meantime intend to provide troops to evict these tenants? These are the men who broke down the bridges of the Cavan Railway twenty years ago.