§ MR. JAMES O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the object of the Congested Districts Board in purchasing the 1203 De Freyne Estate was to secure an improvement in the position of the tenantry; and, if so, will he say why the tenants have been forced to pay two years rent within eleven months while the payment of a third years rent has been demanded within the following six months, making three years rent in eighteen months; whether he is aware that in enforcing the payment of some of these amounts the Board has laid a further burden upon the people of 20 per cent. for law costs; and whether, seeing that even under Lord De Freyne the tenants were never asked to pay two years rent in one year, he will ask the Board to adopt some other method in dealing with these victims of the Irish land system; and whether he will further ask the Board to furnish the tenants with the terms of sale without any more loss of time.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I beg to refer the hon. Member to the Answer which I gave to his previous Question on the 19th instant,† in which the facts as to the payment of rent on the De Freyne estate are fully stated. It is true that the Congested Districts Board were (obliged to demand from certain of the tenants three years rent within eighteen months, but this was due to the fact that these tenants had failed to pay at the proper time. No tenant has been asked to pay more than one year's rent for each year since November, 1903, and in those three years none have paid more than a total of three years rent. Out of a total of 1,752 tenants, decrees for rent have been obtained by the Board in sixty-six cases. In a few of these sixty-six cases the costs would amount to 20 per cent. on the debt, but in many cases they would amount to only 2½ per cent. As I have already indicated, the Congested Districts Board propose to sell the estate to the tenants before another year's rent falls due in November next.