To ask the Minister for Agriculture whether, pending the introduction of legislation dealing with the subject of evicted tenants in general and their claims, the Minister will consider the advisability of setting up in Cork official authority, with machinery, to deal with all claims of evicted tenants arising in Cork and adjoining counties; whether the Minister has received any reports or complaints of intimidation or other irregularities in connection with these evicted tenants' disputes, and, if so, what steps the Minister proposes to take to prevent them continuing.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - CLAIMS OF EVICTED TENANTS
It is not my intention to set up machinery to deal with the evicted tenant problem in Cork or in any one area in particular. The problem must be dealt with as a whole. As regards the second part of the question, I have received some complaints of gross intimidation exercised by Associations calling themselves Evicted Tenants' Associations. I am anxious to get details, but I have not got them, as people concerned find it easier to make general complaints than to furnish me with properly authenticated statements. If the facts warrant it, I shall ask the Government to deal with this form of irregularism as they have been dealing with other illegalities in connection with land.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, can he state when exactly he will tackle the question?
It must be dealt with along with other aspects of the land question in the forthcoming Land Bill, so far as it can be dealt with.