§ Mr. JAMES O'CONNORasked whether, on the occasion of the sale by Earl Fitzwilliam to a tenant, named Minion, of the farm held by the latter, the fact of a man, named Patrick Condren, being sub-tenant to Minion, was returned on the list of sub-tenants on the estate; and whether Condren got any notice from the Estates Commissioners or from the landlord that his holding was about to be sold to the middleman Minion?
§ Mr. JAMES O'CONNORalso asked whether the Estates Commissioners sent any inspector to make inquiries as to the tenants and sub-tenants on that part of the Fitzwilliam estate on which the holdings of a man named Minion and of a subtenant of Minion's, named Condren, were situated; and if he can state the grounds on which the Estates Commissioners excluded Condren from his right to purchase the holding which he occupied as subtenant?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYThe Estates Commissioners inform me that Condren was returned on Minion's purchase agreement as a sub-tenant of 3¾ acres of Minion's holding. The inspector, when he visited the estate, reported on the cases of the sub-tenants, and they were duly considered by the Commissioners, who, in the exercise of their discretion under Section 15 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, did not think fit to deem Condren a direct tenant of the parcel of Minion's holding which he held as sub-tenant, or to deem such parcel a holding for the purposes of sale. It has not been the practice of the Commissioners to state the grounds on which they exercise the discretion vested in them under the Act.