§ Mr. SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, with the view of providing suitable homes and holdings for the evicted tenants as well as to meet the needs of small holders, cottiers, and thrifty and industrious labourers, he will consider the advisability of introducing a clause into his Land Bill to empower the Estates Commissioners to purchase tenants' interests when these are tiered for sale at a reasonable price; and whether he will consider the possibility in this way of providing many evicted tenants with suitable holdings in the neighbourhood of their old homes where they could be materially helped in a fresh start in life by their friends, and of providing land for the purposes of redistribution and the substantial increase of the number of peasant workers upon the soil?
§ Mr. BIRRELLAdvances from the Land Purchase Acts cannot be made for the purchase of tenants' interests, and it does not appear to me practicable to provide for the purchase of such interests by the Estates Commissioners as suggested in the question.