§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Estates Commissioners, as a condition of sanctioning the sale of an estate direct to tenants enforce the fulfilment of equitable terms whereby the landlord induced the tenants to sign, if those terms are omitted from the agreement forms prepared by the landlord's solicitor; whether they have enforced the condition of permanent turbary whereby Captain Smyth induced his Coole tenants in Westmeath to sign the purchase agreements prepared by his solicitor; and, if not, in view of the inducement, the prices found by the inspector to be excessive, and the abundance of bog on that estate, whether the agreements will be amended and enforced in accordance with the verbal inducement under which they were signed?
§ The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND (Mr. Redmond Barry)As regards the first part of the question, sales of estates under the Irish Land Acts, 1903–9, 1140 are carried out in accordance with the provisions of those Acts. As regards the estate referred to in the second part of the question, the Estates Commissioners are at present in communication with the solicitors having carriage of the sale relative to the question of turbary.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, having regard to Section 15 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, providing for the elimination of middlemen and for making sub-tenants purchasers of the holdings of which they are in exclusive occupation, if he will say on what grounds the Estates Commissioners refuse to do this; how many holdings of three acres and upwards, and how many of smaller size, exclusively occupied by sub-tenants, have the Commissioners vested in middlemen; and what arrangement, if any, do they make in such cases to bring the benefits of the Land Purchase Acts within the reach of the sub-tenants?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYThe Estates Commissioners exercise their powers under Section 15 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, in all cases where they consider it desirable and feasible to do so. The statistics of the Estates Commissioners do not give the information asked for in the second paragraph of the question. The cases of all sub-tenants are inquired into and considered when the estate on which they are situate is being dealt with by the Commissioners.
§ Mr. GINNELLHow does the right hon. Gentleman account for the fact that subtenants with considerable farms when a sale is on expect to become purchasers, and they have never been consulted in these proceedings at all?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYAll I can say is that the hon. Gentleman must be aware that discretion is given by Act of Parliament to the Commissioners in such cases.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked how it is that twenty of the tenants on Captain Smyth's Coole estate, Westmeath, who have been paying interest as purchasers to the Land Commission, and whose holdings were stated last month to have been vested in them, are now called upon by the agent to resume payment of their old rents unless they pay an addition to the price which the Estates Commissioners find their holdings to be worth; if he will state the percentage of the excess in each of these cases; and, in view of the amount of these prices for which public money is 1141 advanced, he will say what action the Government propose to take in this case?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYThe present question of the hon. Member appears to refer to an estate of Captain Smyth, county Westmeath, which is being sold under the Irish Land Act, 1909. None of the holdings on this estate have yet been vested. In the case of certain of the holdings the Estates Commissioners have informed the owner that they are not prepared to advance the full amounts applied for, but they have not yet heard whether the owner is willing to sell at the Commissioners' estimated prices. The Commissioners are not aware that the owner is asking the tenants to lodge any portion of the difference in cash. The answer given in reply to a question of the hon. Member on 24th May related to another estate of the same owner, which was being sold under the Act of 1903.
§ Mr. GINNELLPending the arrangements between the vendor and the Commissioners, will not the vendor be restrained from suing these tenants for the old rent—
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYThat is not for the Commissioners.