asked the Minister for Lands whether he is aware that the only surviving evicted tenant of the Derryveigh evictions has been refused an allotment on the lands recently divided on the Derryveigh estate in County Donegal, and whether he will consider revising the scheme for dividing these lands in order to provide for Mrs. Mary Sweeney, Devlin, Creeslough, the evicted tenant referred to above.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Division of Land (Derryveigh).
Mrs. Mary Sweeney, who resides on a small holding some 5 miles from the lands of Derryveigh on the Kingsley Porter estate, claimed an allotment as a representative of evicted tenants, not as an evicted tenant, as the Deputy's question might lead one to suppose. Her claim was fully considered by the Commissioners, but it was not found possible to include her in the scheme, which provided allotments for eight persons who also had claims as representatives of evicted tenants, and for one former employee on the estate. There is still some undivided commonage grazing to be disposed of, and Mrs. Sweeney's case is to be considered in connection with the allotment of this grazing land.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary bear in mind that while it would be impossible for a tenant evicted in the Derryveigh evictions to be still alive, this particular woman was, in fact, then a child living in one of the houses from which the tenants were evicted and is, in that sense, the only surviving person actually evicted in the Derryveigh evictions and would, therefore, seem to have a pre-eminent claim to reinstatement on that land when an opportunity of reinstating evicted tenants presents itself?