§ 5. Mr. HAYDENasked the Chief Secretary whether the attention of the Congested Districts Board has been called to a resolution passed at a recent public meeting held near Strokestown, in the county Roscommon, asking the Board to-purchase the following grass ranches: Ballybroghan, Oakfield, Grange, Kilcooley, Clooneybirne, and Clooneylee, and to take in hand at once the division of other ranches in the district already purchased by the Board; and whether the subject of this resolution will receive immediate attention?
§ Mr. DUKEThe Congested Districts Board have received the resolution referred to, but they cannot identify the farms mentioned. If the names of the owners of the farms and the townlands in which they are situated are given inquiry will be made.
§ 9. Mr. O'LEARYasked the Chief Secretary why the Daly estate, situated in the townlands of Behagh, Thoam, and Balteen-brack, near Dunmanway, in respect of which purchase agreements were signed over eleven years ago, has not yet been vested; whether he can say if this estate will be vested immediately so that the tenants will get without further delay the full benefit of their purchase agreements; and whether he is aware that other estates in the same district, in respect of which purchase agreements were signed at a much later period than those on the Daly estate, were vested some years ago?
§ Mr. DUKEI am informed that the holdings cannot be vested in the purchasing tenants until the purchase money of the estate is advanced. In existing finan- 2587 cial conditions this cannot be done. The Estates Commissioners are not aware of the particular estates referred to in the concluding part of the question, but if the owners elected to accept payment either wholly or partially in stock, the vesting would no doubt have been completed at an earlier date.