§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYasked the right hon. Gentleman if he could say what action the Estates Commissioners are taking or intend to take to effect improvements for the tenants on the estate of D. R. Mahony, situate at Mount Collins, Abbeyfeale, in the county of Limerick, and which was purchased by them under the Land Act, 1903; is he aware that a number of holdings on this estate are intermixed and held in rundale, and that the estate is practically a congested one, and that the tenants petitioned the Estates Commissioners asking for turbary, lime, and roads to improve their holdings; and whether he will take steps to see that before the sale is completed the Commissioners will exercise the powers vested in them to improve this mountainous estate for the benefit of the tenants of the uneconomic holdings?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the estate referred to is a congested estate, and the holdings are in scattered divisions long distances apart, and very inconvenient of access. The Commissioners desire to improve the estate by carrying out a scheme of rearrangement by which every tenant will be given a holding in as few lots as possible instead of as at present in scattered divisions. All the tenants save one are now willing to fall in with the scheme of rearrangement proposed by the Commissioners, and in the case of this tenant the Commissioners propose to apply the 431 provisions of Section 1 of the Congested Districts Board (Ireland) Act, 1901, as amended by the Irish Land Acts 1903 and 1909.
§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYIs it the intention of the Estates Commissioners to carry out those improvements without delay?
§ Mr. BIRRELLYes, Sir. The delay has only arisen through this disagreement, and we propose to proceed with the work at once.