§ Mr. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state for how many estates in the Land Judge's Court for sale have the Estates Commissioners made purchase proposals, the name of each such estate, the county in which it is situate, and the date of the proposal; and whether, seeing that the Estates Commissioners and their inspectors possess special competence for estimating the value of land, and in view of the cost of the Land Court and the hardships inflicted upon large numbers of people by the delay in its proceedings, he will give favourable consideration to the desirability of transferring to the Estates Commissioners all estates for sale.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners have issued proposals for the purchase of seventy-six estates in the Land Judge's Court. In the case of sixty-one estates the Land Judge has accepted, or indicated his willingness to accept, the Commissioners' offer, in three cases the Commissioners' offer has been refused, in one case their offer has been withdrawn at the request of the 70 Land Judge, and in the remaining eleven cases the offers are still pending. These facts do not appear to indicate the desirability of considering the suggestion made in the latter part of the Question.