§ MR. MOOREI beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland if he can state why Lord Ashtown has been selected as the first and only person in the county of Waterford from whom the Estates Commissioners have instituted proceedings to acquire land compulsorily for the purposes of The Evicted Tenants Act, 1907.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe expediency of acquiring any particular land for the purposes of the Evicted Tenants Act is, under the Act, a matter for the decision of the Estates Commissioners themselves. It is open to the owner to appeal to a Judge of the High Court if the Commissioners should initiate proceedings for the compulsory acquisition of land as to which the restrictions of the Act apply. As the matter therefore may be the subject of a judicial decision, I do not propose to inquire what the reasons of the Commissioners may have been for instituting proceedings for the compulsory purchase of land from Lord Ashtown, or from any other owner.