§ MR. DONAL SULLIVAN (Westmeath, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he now can state whether an inspection of Colonel Digby's estate at Ballinacurra, Moyvore, county Westmeath, has taken place by the inspectors of the Irish Estates Commissioners, and with what result; whether the evicted tenants are likely to be restored to their former holdings; and whether the former negotiations for the sale of this estate were blocked by the action of a large grazier who holds these evicted farms on the eleven months system, and who refuses to restore the lands to the former tenants, although offered full compensation for any loss or improvements made on the lands by him.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners understand that this Question relates to the estate of W. R. Digby, county Westmeath. No proceedings for the sale of that estate have been instituted before the Commissioners, and no inspection has therefore taken place. The Commissioners 533 have received an application from one evicted tenant for reinstatement on the estate, but the applicant is ineligible under the Act. The Commissioners have no knowledge of the facts alleged in the concluding part of the Question.