§ MR. HAZLETONTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the estate of Ballyglass, in the barony of Ballymoe, County Galway (sold through the Court to the Land Commission in 1900), contains twelve holdings under £1 valuation and four over that amount, whilst a Mr. J. P. Mulligan holds a nonresidential grass farm which he has refused to sell for the extension of the uneconomic holdings; and whether he proposes to give power to deal with such cases as this under the promised land legislation.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I am informed that the lands referred to in the Question formed part of an estate which was sold in the Land Judge's Court to the occupying tenants under the Land Purchase Acts, 1891–1896. The sales were made under ordinary proposals by the tenants to purchase from the Land Judge, and were carried out in, and subsequent to, the year 1898. One of the purchasing tenants was Mr. J. P. Mulligan, whose holding consisted of a non-residential grass farm for which he paid £5,000, the advance by the Land Commission being £4,000 and the remainder paid in cash. There were eighteen other purchasing tenants, in ten of whose cases the tenement value was under £1. I am not at present in a position to give details of the proposed legislation for amending the Land Acts, but the question raised in the hon. Member's concluding inquiry will receive full consideration when the Report of the Royal Commission on Congestion is being dealt with.