§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Estates Commissioners, when considering the claim of Mrs. Catherine Connolly as a tenant evicted from a farm at Ballylucas, Ballymurrin, county Wexford, by Mr. M. A. Maher in 1893, had the principal facts of the case before them; that she was evicted within a short time of her husband's death; that before the expiry of the six months legally allowed for redemption she offered the full amount legally due; that this was at first accepted and afterwards returned with a demand for rent for the six months she had been out of the farm; and that even this was subsequently offered by her solicitor but rejected by the landlord; and, seeing that this treatment constitutes her an evicted tenant entitled to reinstatement or a new holding, whether immediate steps will be taken to give this claimant the benefit of the Acts passed for dealing with such cases?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe circumstances of this case were considered by the Estates Commissioners, when they decided, in the exercise of the discretion vested in them, not to take any action in regard to Mrs Connolly's application, and they are not prepared to depart from that decision.
§ Mr. AUGUSTINE ROCHEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if his attention has been called to a meeting held in Dundalk on the 20th instant, at which resolutions were passed regarding the number of evicted tenants in county Louth who have neither been reinstated in their former holdings nor provided with allotments of untenanted land; and whether, seeing that the Estates Commissioners have lately acquired 2,000 acres of land in the county, he will represent to the Commissioners the urgent necessity of sending down an inspector to inquire into the cases and claims of those evicted tenants for allotments on the said lands?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners have received the resolution referred to. Fifty-three county Louth 61W evicted tenants have been reinstated in their former or provided with other holdings, and there is now only one county Louth evicted tenant whose application has been noted for consideration in the allotment of untenanted land to be acquired by the Commissioners, and who has not yet been provided with a holding. The Commissioners are not prepared to send down an inspector to inquire into applications which have already been refused by them, or which, not having been lodged within the period specified by the Evicted Tenants Act, 1907, do not come within that Act.
§ Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will state in how many cases have the Estates Commissioners instituted legal proceedings against reinstated evicted tenants for non-compliance with the rules as to the working of their lands, and the results of such proceedings; in how many cases are proceedings pending; in how many eases have tenants carried out their undertakings to comply with the Commissioners' requirements; and the results to date of the investigation which has been directed in regard to other cases of reinstated evicted tenants who are apparently not residing on or working their holdings in a proper manner?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI have nothing to add to the reply given to the similar question of the hon. Baronet on 5th instant.