§ Mr. MAURICE HEALYasked the Chief Secretary if he can state how many evicted tenants have been reinstated in the Parliamentary Division of North-East Cork under the Evicted Tenants Act; how many applications were received from evicted tenants in that division; how many of these had their names noted as fit to be provided with holdings; and in how many cases proceedings to reinstate are still pending; whether any attempt has been made in the division referred to to procure the consent of now tenants or planters to the reinstatement of the old tenants, as was done on the Clanricarde estate; and whether the Estates Commissioners are aware that it would be possible to procure such consents on moderate terms in several cases?
§ Mr. BIRRELL:The records of the Estates Commissioners are not kept by Parliamentary divisions. The figures for the county of Cork are as follows: Applications have been received from 1,106 persons seeking reinstatement as evicted tenants or as the representatives of evicted tenants. Six hundred and forty-nine of these applications have, after inquiry, been rejected. One hundred and ninety-seven persons have been reinstated in their former holdings or provided with other holdings, including twenty provided with holdings on lands acquired under the Evicted Tenants Act, and 122 have been noted for consideration in the allotment of untenanted land. The remaining 138 applications were received after 1st May, 1907, the date specified in the Evicted Tenants Act, 1907, and cannot be dealt with under that Act. If the hon. Member will refer to the last Annual Report of the Estates Commissioners he will see that the proceedings for the compulsory acquisition of the new tenants' holdings on the Clanricarde estate entirely failed, even though these new tenants consented to accept certain prices for their interests and the Commissioners were willing to pay those prices. The Commissioners therefore thought it useless to repeat such proceedings elsewhere.