§ 22. Captain SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the tenants on the Townsend estate, situate at Fir-mount, Rathcoola, and Ballyqurrihy, county Cork, signed agreements to purchase their holdings on 1st May, 1908, and have since been paying interest at the rate of 3¾per cent., which imposes an undue burden on them; and when their holdings will be vested in the tenants and personal ownership thereby established?
§ Mr. SAMUELSThe facts are as stated. The estate referred to has not yet been 1172 reached in order of priority on the register of direct sales for cash. The provision in the purchase agreements, whereby the tenants, pending the advance of the purchase money and the vesting of the holdings, pay interest on the agreed purchase money, has the effect of giving them a reduction in their rents.