asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture if the rents fixed under the Land Law Ireland Act, 1896, on the estate of the then Hon. T.A. Brassey, now Lord Egerton, townland of Inch Level (Lough Swilly Sloblands), parish of Fahan, Burt, and Inch, late Derry No. 2 Rural District Council, Donegal, was on the basis that the landlord would keep clear as heretofore the two main arterial rivers, viz.:—the Skeog and another unnamed river; also sluices and flood gates in the embankment; and if the Minister is aware that, it is stated, that through the neglect to put these conditions into operation since the Land Commission assumed the management of the said estate under the provisions of the Land Act, 1923, large areas of several farms have become derelict and valueless.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - MAINTENANCE OF DONEGAL ESTATE.
The estate referred to comprises 16 holdings on the Coast of Donegal, and the landlord has lodged particulars thereof with the Land Commission to enable the estate to be dealt with under the Land Act, 1923, but the lands have not been vested in the Land Commission. Five of the holdings are subject to judicial rents fixed by judicial orders, one in the year 1903, three in 1907, and one in 1908; the rents of three of these holdings were fixed on the basis of the landlord keeping clear the main arterial rivers, and in the fourth case, on the basis of the landlord keeping the sluices in the embankment in order. (The tenant in one of the cases was to keep the external drains in order himself.) The Land Commission have received complaints on behalf of the tenants on the estate with regard to the drainage thereon, and have replied that at the present stage of the proceedings they are not in a position to deal with the matter, but that when the estate is being inspected the question of repairs and future maintenance of the embankment and other drainage works will be considered with reference to the provisions of Section 44 of the Act, and that meanwhile it would be advisable for the tenant to approach the landlord with a view to having an existing defect remedied.