§ Mr. JAMES O'KELLYasked the Chief Secretary whether the Congested Districts Board will take measures to secure the grazing farm known as Chaldramoran, and situated near Ballyruddy, Elphin, for division among the smaller tenants of the adjacent uneconomic holdings?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe lands referred to have been purchased by the Congested Districts Board, and they will, with as little delay as possible, prepare a scheme for dealing with them.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary whether the Estates Commissioners have asked Messrs. Coates and Fanning, fee-farm tenants of non-residential grass farms on the Pollard Urquhart estate, Westmeath, now for sale, to sell those farms for the relief of congestion on that 554W estate; whether they expect to acquire those farms for that purpose; whether, in view of the congestion on that estate, they have made any attempt to prevent the vendor of it from selling an untenanted portion of it to an adjoining owner of extensive property; and whether, pending their finally dealing with an estate, the Commissioners take any steps to protect the prospective interests of tenant purchasers?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe reply to the first paragraph of the question is in the negative. The Estates Commissioners understand that the lands referred to are held by Messrs. Fanning and Coates, subject to a fee-farm rent, and that they are in the occupation of sub-tenants. The Commissioners have no knowledge of the sale of any untenanted land by the owner of this estate to an adjoining owner. The holdings on the estate referred to have been vested by the Commissioners in the purchasing tenants in accordance with their agreements under the Land Purchase Acts.
§ Mr. O'MALLEYasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that 400 tenants on the R. C. Lynch estate, in the Tour-makeady district of the Connemara division, county Galway, purchased some four years ago by the Congested Districts Board, are deprived of the right they exercised of cutting turf on the adjoining Clements estate, which contains a vast area of bog; whether, in view of the fact that the Lynch estate, now Congested Districts Board, suffers from want of turf, he will urge on the Congested Districts Board the desirability of purchasing the Clements estate, and making provision for the 400 tenants of the Lynch estate to have access to the bog thereon; and whether the Congested Districts Board have entered into any negotiations for the purchase of the Clements estate?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Congested Districts Board are not aware that the tenants on the Lynch estate had a right to cut turf on the adjoining Clements estate, but the Board were informed that possibly the tenants on the former estate might not be able to continue to get their turf on the latter. A road has therefore been made giving access to a bog on the Lynch estate. The Board are unable to say whether there is enough bog on the Clements estate to supply turf for any considerable time to all the tenants on the two estates, but further inquiries will be made. Mr. Clements was willing to sell his estate to 555W the Board some years ago, and the question of purchasing from him will again be considered by them.
§ Mr. HACKETTasked the Chief Secretary whether, in view of the fact that the Estates Commissioners have directed their inspector to make a minute inspection of the holdings of each town tenant in Ballingarry, county Tipperary, he will state the amount of the purchase money the Estates Commissioners are prepared to advance in respect to each holding provided the balance of the purchase money is paid in cash by the occupiers?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the inspection referred to was a preliminary one. The holdings are not the subject of proceedings for sale before the Commissioners, and until purchase agreements are lodged under the Land Purchase Acts, the Commissioners will not take any further action in the matter.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary whether, in view of the statutory liability of the Irish ratepayers, he will state the names of all the properties in dealing with which the late Mr. Commissioner Finucane dissented from his colleagues, holding that those properties were so badly congested and the holdings so manifestly inadequate security for the prices, with no means of improving or enlarging them, that they were unfit to be declared estates for the purposes of the Land Act of 1903?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI have nothing to add to my reply to the hon. Member's question on this subject on the 15th instant.
§ Mr. DUFFYasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that a promise was made to the people on the Arran Isles, county Galway, that valuers from the Congested Districts Board would visit the island for purposes of inspection and valuation, so long ago as last December; is he aware of the position of those poor tenants living away in the Western Ocean; and will he suggest to the Congested Districts Board the expediency of lending an attentive hearing to the many requests made by those poor island congests for a relief, in the direction of purchase, etc., of their sad lot?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Congested Districts Board are negotiating for the purchase of the Arran Isles, county Galway,556W and are most anxious to complete the purchase as quickly as possible. It has not been practicable to have an inspection and valuation of the estate made before now.
§ Mr. CREANasked the Chief Secretary whether the Estates Commissioners, before sanctioning the sale of the Sealy estate, Kilbrittain, county Cork, will insist on the landlord restoring to Mr. John Hurley the fourteen acres from which he was evicted, and which is still in the possession of the landlord?
§ Mr. BIRRELLWhen this estate, which is being sold direct to the tenants under the Irish Land Act, 1903, is reached in order of priority the application of John Hurley for reinstatment in his former holding will be inquired into by the Estates Commissioners. The eviction apparently took place more than twenty-five years before the passing of the Irish Land Act, 1903, and the case cannot, therefore, be dealt with under the Evicted Tenants Act.