§ MR. SHEEHAN (Cork County, Mid)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state the average reduction given on 1575 the fixing of second-term judicial rents by the Land Commission, first, in Munster, and, secondly, in all Ireland during the past twelve months; has it been the invariable practice of the Land Commission valuers to appreciate the land as they found it without making any allowance for the outlay of the tenants and the improvements effected by them; and whether, seeing that the terms suggested in the Land Conference Report were based upon second-term rents reduced by 22 per cent., do the reductions at present obtained by tenants bear any approximate relation to this figure.
§ MR. BIRRELLI am informed by the Land Commission that during the twelve months ending 31st March last the average reduction given on the fixing of second-term rents was, in Munster 19 per cent, and in all Ireland 18.6 per cent. In fixing fair rents the Land Commission pay due regard to the provisions of the Land Law Acts as judicially interpreted by the Supreme and other Courts in numerous decisions. Section 1 of the Land Law Act, 1896, requires the Court, when fixing a fair rent, to record in a schedule, unless both landlord and tenant shall other wise request, certain particulars, including the improvements made wholly or partly by the tenant or at his cost, and the deduction from the rent made on account of such improvements. This statutory direction is, the Commissioners inform me, invariably obeyed.