§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he concurs with 1314W the Congested Districts Board, when distributing a grass farm at Ballyvary, county Mayo, for relief of congestion, in refusing to give any portion of it to Mrs. Bridget M'Hale on the ground that Ballyvary, which contains only 75 inhabitants, is a town; and whether he will have this decision reversed and a portion of the land assigned to Mrs. M'Hale?
§ Mr. DUKEI dealt with this matter in reply to a question by the hon. Member for West Mayo yesterday
§ Mr. GINNELLasked whether Colonel Purdon Winter is tilling the required proportion of his grass farm on the Shaen-Carter estate, near Killucan; whether the Estates Commissioners inspected and made a preliminary offer for this grass farm in October, 1911, with a view to its purchase and distribution among the uneconomic holders on the estate under Section 6, Sub-section (2), of the Land Purchase Acts; and whether the Commissioners will take the necessary steps now for distributing this farm among people willing and able to till it?
§ Mr. DUKEThis estate is not the subject of proceedings for sale to the Estates Commissioners under Section 6 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, and the Commissioners have made no offer to purchase the farm referred to. The farm is not untenanted land in the hands of the owner, but is held by Colonel Purdon as a judicial tenant. No purchase agreement has been lodged in respect thereof in the proceedings which the owner has instituted for the sale of the estate direct to the tenants under the Act of 1903. The reply to the last part of the question is in the negative.