§ Mr. SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to the claim of the representatives of John Bennett, an evicted tenant; is he aware that this man was evicted from his farm of 353 acres on the estate of Smith-Barry at Darrarah, near Clonakilty, in the year 1886 for a sum of £327 10s., being a year and a third of a year's rent; that at their own request the Estates Commissioners were repeatedly furnished with all documents and particulars concerning this eviction, including the writ of summons out of which the eviction took place and a copy of the judicial order fixing a fair rent, which shows that the late John Bennett was a judicial tenant at the time of his eviction; that this farm was subsequently taken by a planter named Daniel O'Leary; that under his will it passed into the hands of the Bishop of Ross and Monsignor O'Leary as trustees or tenants; that the Estates Commissioners, on the 31st January, 1905, wrote to John Bennett, then alive, stating that his application for reinstatement had been duly received and recorded, and adding that, should the Commissioners acquire any untenanted lands in the neighbourhood of his former holding, his application for another farm in lieu of the one from which he had been evicted would be considered; that the Estates Commissioners, notwithstanding this, wrote on 4th November, 1909, to Mr. C. J. Harold stating that the reason that they decided to take no action on the claim of Mr. Bennett's daughters was that the application was not lodged within the time prescribed by the Evicted Tenants Act of 1907; that Mr. Bennett's farm of 343 acres has since been purchased, with the aid of public money, by the Bishop of Ross and Monsignor O'Leary; is this same evicted 2333 holding now used as an agricultural station by the Department of Agriculture; and seeing, from the Estates Commissioners' letter of 1905, that they regarded this claim as a bonâ fide one, will he now state the grounds on which it was rejected, and whether he has sanctioned a Department of the Irish Government being at this moment the tenants of an evicted farm?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYThe Estates Commissioners inform me that in 1904 John Bennett made application for reinstatement in the holding described in the question, which was then in the occupation of other tenants. The Commissioners understand that Bennett owed £577 at the time of his eviction. In January, 1905, the Commissioners wrote to him stating that his case would be considered in the event of their acquiring untenanted land in the neighbourhood. His application was subsequently inquired into, considered, and refused. An application on behalf of his daughters made after the date prescribed by the Evicted Tenants Act was also inquired into by the Estates Commissioners and refused. The lands in question are now held by the Bishop of Ross and Monsignor O'Leary, who appear to have acquired the tenant's interest under the will of Daniel O'Leary. They have agreed to purchase the lands under the Irish Land Act, 1903. I understand that the lands are now used as an agricultural station, and I see no reason why they should not be so used.