§ MR. GINNELLTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that, notwithstanding the assurances given by himself and his predecessor in office, the Estates Commissioners continue to facilitate the creation, and to recognise the validity, of bogus tenancies in non-residential grass land which is not legally tenanted and is required for the relief of congestion and as provision for the landless in the immediate neighbourhood; whether the instruments creating the alleged tenancies in the cases of Taaffe and Ballesty on Colonel Malone's Barronstown estate, Westmeath, may now be examined on behalf of the unrelieved congests on that estate; and by what means, legislative or administrative, does he propose to reserve untenanted and non-residential grass lands for the relief of congestion and provision for the landless.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Answer to the first part of the Question is in the negative. As regards the Malone estate, I would refer the hon. Member to my replies to his Questions of 17th July last and 17th December, 1906. I am not prepared to discuss the provisions of the forthcoming Land Bill pending its introduction.