asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture whether several market gardeners and other tenants of agricultural land in the vicinity of Cork and other cities and towns of the Saorstát have been excluded from the benefit of the Land Act, 1923, on the plea that their holdings were potential building ground; whether he is aware that such exclusion will give landlords an interest in these holdings they never previously possessed against tenants, many of whom, with their predecessors in title have been hundreds of years in occupation; and whether it is intended to remove this grievance by introducing an amending Bill.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - LAND ACT—POSITION OF MARKET GARDENERS.
Mr. HOGAN
Holdings which, in the opinion of the Land Commission possess a substantial value or utility, whether potential or actual as building ground, are excluded from the Land Act, 1923. In a number of cases where the landlords have contended that holdings are excluded for this reason, they or the tenants have applied to the Judicial Commissioner for a declaration as to whether the Act does or does not apply, and the Court has decided either in favour of the tenant or the landlord in accordance with the merits of each case.
Prior to the Act of 1923, landlords under the Land Acts had the right to resume holdings for the purpose of building.