§ MR. JOYCE (Limerick)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieuten and of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the fact that the tenants who have been reinstated on the Mount I Shannon estate, County Limerick, and who were evicted tenants, have been processed for rates and taxes on all the land; whether he is aware that a large portion of this land has been thickly timbered and that this timber has been sold to a merchant who is having it cut down and removed; that the tenants allege that this land is useless to them at present; and, if so, whether something will be done to relieve the tenants from rates on this portion of the estate until the timber is removed and the land can be made use of by the tenants.
§ MR. CHERRYThe tenant purchasers have been put in possession of the holdings on this estate and are liable for the rates and taxes from the date an which they received possession. There is no power to relieve them from that liability. The timber was not included in the resale to the tenants.
§ MR. JOYCEIs the Attorney-General aware of the fact that these evicted tenants are mostly in very straitened circumstances; that they have not been put in possession of the land, because it has been out of tenure and has been in possession of a timber merchant who bought the timber from the Estates Commissioners? Why should these poor people be liable for rates and taxes on land which they cannot make use of? I think it is pretty straight.
§ MR. CHERRYThey have been formally put in possession, but unfortunately owing to the peculiar circumstances of the case they are not able to make use of it. The case is one of great difficulty, but they were put in possession by their own consent.
§ MR. JOYCEWhy, if they are only formally in possession, should they be compelled to pay rates and taxes?
§ MR. CHERRYBecause they are the rated occupiers of the land. The timber merchant is not in possession. He only goes on to the land to cut down the timber. He is not in occupation.