§ Mr. HACKETTasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that five tenants were evicted from the lands of Cloonyross, county Tipperary, in 1880; that Mr. W. P. Hanly, Lanespark, subsequently became tenant and afterwards purchased the lands under the Irish Land Act, 1896; whether 527W he is aware that Mr. Hanly redeemed the annuity payable to the Irish Land Commission out of these lands in March of this year; that he has partitioned the lands and sold them to purchasers, receiving a fine from the purchasers and reserving an annual rent per acre; and, having regard to the principles of the Irish Land Acts, whether he can state what steps the Government will take to prevent the re-establishment of a new system of landlordism in Ireland?
Mr. SAMUELThe Estates Commissioners received applications from four persons seeking reinstatement as tenants, or the representatives of tenants, evicted from holdings on Cloonyross on the Perceval estate, county Tipperary, and provided them with new holdings on untenanted land acquired under the Irish Land Act, 1903. Mr. Hanly did not purchase the lands of Cloonyross under the Land Purchase Acts. Patrick Cody, as tenant in occupation, entered into an agreement to purchase them in 1893 under the Act of 1891, and they were vested in him as owner in fee simple in November, 1894. He subsequently transferred them to Mr. Hanly, by whom the outstanding instalments of the land purchase annuity were redeemed in March last. The Commissioners have no information as regards any528W I subsequent sub-division of the lands and I their consent to any such sub-division is not necessary, as the lands are not subject to any land purchase annuity. There does not appear in this case to have been any infringement of existing land laws, and further legislation, even if desirable, is not practicable at this juncture.