§ 116. Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state the statutory authority, if any, for the discrimination practised by the Estates Commissioners between vendors and persons entitled to purchase, applying no pressure to the former and undue pressure to the latter, in cases of disagreement as to price; for their sending, at the instance of the vendor, a second valuer to farms, and applying economic pressure to get prices fixed by him from persons willing to pay what the first valuer found the farms to be worth; for applying similar pressure to tenants of poor land on an estate who refuse to sign purchase agreements at prices agreed to by tenants of better land; seeing that this practice results in many defaulting annuitants and consequent loss to the ratepayers, whether it is to be continued; on how many farms so treated, and on how many evicted farms, have the Land Commission caretakers employed; for how 1624 many of each class are they holding the county councils responsible for annuities; and by what authority they now urge county councils to buy up evicted farms at prices which should never have been sanctioned and which they are incapable of yielding?
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)No discrimination of the nature indicated in the question is practised by the Estates Commissioners, who do not apply pressure to tenants to purchase at prices which they do not wish to give, except in the rare cases where it is found necessary after full consideration and in the general interest to resort to the powers conferred by Section 19 of the Irish Land Act, 1903. The great majority of transactions are sales direct by owners to tenants, who enter into purchase agreements at prices arranged between themselves and apply to the Commissioners for advances of these prices. In determining whether the advances shall be made the Commissioners look entirely to the question of the security afforded by the holdings proposed to be purchased. The Commissioners occasionally cause a second inspection to be made of an estate where they consider it necessary, but they are not bound by the valuation arrived at at either inspection. There are only four defaulter holdings in charge of caretakers employed by the Land Commission, and in no case have the Commissioners requested county councils to buy such holdings.
§ Mr. GINNELLThe right hon. Gentleman has not answered the latter part of the question at all. Is it not the fact that cases of default under the Purchase Acts are due to this pressure?
§ Mr. BIRRELLNo, Sir.