§ MR. KILBRIDE (Kildare, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the occupier of Gurteen Farm, Nurney, County Kildare, on the Drogheda estate, has advertised the interest in his farm for sale; and whether he will 719 direct the attention of the Estates Commissioners to the matter with a view of purchasing the occupier's interest, reinstating the former evicted tenant, and increasing existing uneconomic holdings in the neighbourhood.
§ MR. KILBRIDETo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that in the townland of Oghill, Monasterevan, County Kildare, on the Drogheda estate, there are thirty holdings varying from one to ten acres; whether his attention has been directed to the advertisement of sale of the late Mr. Conlan's farm of 300 acres at Oghill on the 30th instant, also on the Drogheda estate; and whether he will cause the Estates Commissioners to inquire into the facts with a view to purchasing the late Mr. Conlan's interest and have the lands divided so as to increase the size of the existing uneconomic holdings in the neighbourhood.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) Purchase agreements have recently been lodged with the Estates Commissioners in respect of twenty-three holdings on the estate of the Earl of Drogheda, including an agreement signed by Peter Conlan for the purchase of his holding at Oghill comprising 296 acres. In seventeen out of the twenty-three cases the area of the holding does not exceed ten acres. The Commissioners have no knowledge that the tenant's interest in Conlan's or any other case has been advertised for sale. But in any event, having regard to the statutory conditions under which the Commissioners act, it is not possible for them to attend and bid at sales by auction, nor have they power to make any advance out of the Land Purchase Fund for the purchase of a tenant's interest.