§ 75. Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary having regard to the number of Acts passed promising relief to bonâ fide evicted tenants in Ireland and the number of those officially noted as entitled to this relief who still remain unprovided for while their farms remain untenanted, whether he will take care that the Land Purchase Bill now in preparation will remedy this hardship by compelling the landlords of such vacant farms to sell them for the purpose of restoring thereto the evicted or their representatives?
§ Mr. RUSSELLThree thousand two hundred and forty-eight tenants have been reinstated or provided with new holdings and there are now only 303 evicted tenants whose applications have been provisionally noted for consideration in the allotment of untenanted land acquired by the Estates Commissioners, and who have not yet been reinstated or provided with new holdings (in some sixty of these latter cases the applications received stated that the evicted holdings were in the landlord's occupation). The Commissioners consider that these cases include all persons whose claims deserve consideration and who are suitable to work land, and they are not prepared to reconsider the other cases in which they have decided to take no action. The Commissioners hope to be able to provide holdings for such of these 303 applicants as may be finally approved, on further consideration, out of untenanted land acquired under the voluntary provisions of the Land Purchase Acts.
§ Mr. GINNELLThe right hon. Gentleman has not answered the question whether the preparation of the forthcoming Land Purchase Bill will be availed of to provide for these people.
§ Mr. RUSSELLThe Estates Commissioners have these cases in hand altogether apart from any consideration of future legislation.
§ Mr. GINNELLSeeing that the Estates Commissioners have had these cases in their hands for ten years without effect, will the Chief Secretary now take steps to settle these cases?
§ Mr. RUSSELLI cannot allow the hon. Member to say that. It is quite true that the case of the evicted tenants has been under consideration for ten years, but that these cases have been under consideration for ten years is not true.
§ Mr. GINNELLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware of the fact that every one of these cases has been on the list of approved cases for ten years?
§ Mr. RUSSELLI am not aware of that.
§ Mr. GINNELLI am aware of it.
§ Mr. W. O'BRIENIs it not the fact that, although the right hon. Gentleman has stated that there are only 300 cases pending, more than 5,000 cases have been rejected altogether, and is there to be no reconsideration of these cases?
§ Mr. RUSSELLI must conclude that if the Estates Commissioners rejected these cases there are bonâ-fide grounds for it.
§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYWill the right hon. Gentleman see that the Estates Commissioners deal with those cases that they have recognised as genuine at once and without further delay as these people have been evicted for twenty years?
§ Mr. RUSSELLI have no objection to pressing that on them.
§ Mr. CREANWhy should not they continue to exercise their influence in the interests of those whom they approved of originally? Because they could not get land they simply cast them out.
§ Mr. RUSSELLI cannot add anything to the information which the Estates Commissioners have given me. A large number of cases have been rejected, and from my information I think properly rejected. The Estates Commissioners who are entrusted by Parliament with this duty declare that out of between three and four thousand they have still 303 on the list, and they intend to confine themselves to that list and will not go back on the rejections.