§ Mr. VINCENT KENNEDYasked the Chief Secretary if he will state in what counties the Estates Commissioners have failed to acquire lands under the Evicted Tenants Act; what is the extent of the staff administering this Act; who is in charge of the county Cavan; and is it intended to continue this Act which expires in 1911?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the counties in which land has not as yet been compulsorily acquired under the Evicted Tenants Act, 1907, are Armagh, Cavan, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Londonderry, Roscommon, Tyrone, and Wicklow; but proceedings are pending under that Act in respect of lands in all these counties save Dublin and Roscommon, and a considerable area has been, or is being, acquired in all of them under the voluntary provisions of the Act of 1903. Proceedings under the Evicted Tenants Act form part of the work of the general staff of the Commissioners, and it is not possible to say what proportion of their number and time is taken up with this particular work. No fixed staff is assigned to any particular county.