§ Mr. FLAVINasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Estates Commissioners or Congested Districts Board have taken any steps to acquire the untenanted lands at Ballinand-derry, Listowel, the property of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, for the purpose of subdivision amongst the labourers and uneconomic holders in the district; and, if so, what progress has been made in the direction of purchase?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThis estate is the subject of proceedings for sale direct by the vendor to the tenants under the Irish Land Act, 1903, and when the estate is being dealt with by the Estates Commissioners in order of priority the question whether the vendor should be asked to include any untenanted land in the sale proceedings will be considered by them.
§ Sir WALTER NUGENTasked if the Estates Commissioners are considering the advisability of applying the compulsory Clauses of the Land Act of 1909 for the purpose of relieving the congestion existing on the estate of Mrs. Julia Thomasina, near Streamstown, county Westmeath, by the acquisition of untenanted land on the O'Donohoe estate 3190W adjoining her property, which might be made available for that purpose?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe question of instituting proceedings under the compulsory provisions of the Irish Land Act, 1909, for the acquisition of the untenanted land on the O'Donohoe estate, county Westmeath, has not been considered by the Estates Commissiońers.
§ Sir WALTER NUGENTasked on what grounds the Estates Commissioners have refused to declare the lands of Killarue, Dillon estate, near Streamstown, county Westmeath, the property of Mrs. Julia Thomasina, an estate under the meaning of the Act?
§ Mr. BIRRELLIt would be contrary to the practice of the Estates Commissioners to state the reasons which actuate them in the exercise of their judicial discretion.
§ Mr. FLAVINasked the cause of the delay in not vesting the holding of Denis Horgan, of Ayle, Ballyduff, a tenant purchaser on the Mrs. Rose Trench Stoughter estate?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe vesting of the holdings referred to has been postponed by the Eestates Commissioners until certain questions which have arisen as to the title to the lands comprised in the holding have been settled.
§ Mr. FFRENCHasked what progress has been made towards acquiring the town-lands of Duncormack, Scotsland, and Weneytown, on the Boyd estate, county Wexford, by the Estates Commissioners; if any arrangement has been made between the Commissioners and the Master of the Rolls so that these lands may be disposed of to tenants; and if the inspector to the Estates Commissioners has yet visited these lands?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to his question on this subject on the 26th March, to which I have nothing to add at present.
§ Mr. PATRICK WHITEasked whether an ex-policeman named Gunning, to whom the Estates Commissioners gave a farm at Drumrone, Nobber, county Meath, on the estate of the Misses Barlow, in opposition to the unanimously expressed opinion of the people of the district, was put under any obligation not to dispose of his interest in it for a definite period; and, if so, whether they will inquire if he is still the 3191W occupying tenant or whether he has sold his interest to a rancher?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners allotted Patrick Gunning a holding on the Barlow estate, county Meath, in exchange for a farm surrendered by him in county Gahvay to enable the Commissioners to relieve the congestion in that district. The lands have been vested in him, and he has full power to dispose of his ownership if he so desires, but the Commissioners understand that he does not intend to part with the lands.
§ Mr. FLAVINasked the Chief Secretary whether lie will invite the Congested Districts Board to purchase the untenanted lands, about 100 acres, situate at Lahar-den, Ballybunion, the property of Mr. P. D. Griffin, Cork; whether he is aware that there are about twenty uneconomic holdings in the immediate vicinity of this untenanted land; and whether, having this in view, the Congested Districts Board will immediately acquire this land for enlargement of these uneconomic holdings?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Congested Districts Board will communicate with Mr. Griffin with a view to ascertaining whether he is willing to negotiate for the sale of the lands referred to through them.
§ Mr. FLAVINasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the tenants on the Thomas Studdert estate, situate at Ballyoneen, North Kerry, have made frequent applications for sale of their holdings which has been refused them; and whether, seeing that continued pressure and legal proceedings are made on the tenants to pay an impossible rent, the Congested Districts Board will see their, way to take immediate action to acquire this estate for improvements and resale to the tenants?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Congested Districts Board have received communications from the representatives of the tenants on the estate referred to from which it appears that the owner is not prepared to sell the property. The estate has not been offered for sale to the Board, and they do not propose to take any steps to acquire it compulsorily pending the result of proceedings which have been taken for the compulsory purchase of certain other estates.
§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYasked the Chief Secretary whether the sale of the estate of the Earl of Cork and Orrery by the landlord to the tenants in the townlands of 3192W Ballinagoul, Gregane, Garrouse, and others, in the county of Limerick, has yet been completed; and, if not, whether the Estates Commissioners will see before completing same that the land is security for the advance agreed upon as it is subject to flooding; whether he is aware that the hay crop there is entirely lost this season; and, having regard to this fact and to the fact that most of the tenants are future tenants, he will see that a valuer of the Estates Commissioners will meet the tenants and hear from them that they purchased their holdings subject to such valuation and ascertain what their position really is?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThis estate is the subject of proceedings for sale direct, by the owner to the tenants, and when the Estates Commissioners are dealing with it in order of priority, the matter referred to will be considered by them.
§ Mr. FLAVINasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the tenants on the Miss Oliver estate, situate at Kilmorley South, signed agreements to purchase their holdings in 1908 from the landlord; whether he is aware that the tenants on the estate are willing to sell to their subtenants on the same estate; and whether, before vesting orders are issued, inquiries will be made and inspection instituted with the view of having sub-tenants purchasing on the same terms as the other tenants?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThis estate was the subject of proceedings for sale direct by the vendor to the tenants. The Estates Commissioners, when dealing with the estate, inquired into the cases of the sub-tenants and decided in certain cases to declare that they should be deemed (under Section 15 of the Land Act of 1903) tenants of the parcels occupied by them for the purposes of sale, while in the remaining cases the Commissioners decided not to make such a declaration. The holdings, with one exception, have been vested in the purchasing tenants, and the Commissioners cannot take any further action in the matter.