Land Commission holdings and allocation
The Minister offered a county-by-county statement and said resale schemes for 30,000 acres had been submitted, with efforts to reallocate land held in stock. Tully disputed the pace and cited land held since 1962; the Minister said inspectors had been instructed to dispose of it quickly.
asked the Minister for Agriculture the amount of land held by the Land Commission in each county.
Comment on this
The information requested is contained in a tabular statement which, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report.
Following is the statement:
Lettable lands in possession of the Land Commission.
Comment on this
Assuming that the position in other counties is the same as it is in County Meath, for which I got a reply the week before last, will the Minister explain why the Land Commission persist in holding on to farms they acquired many years ago? Will he tell the House why they have not brought the allocation of land up to date?
Comment on this
I can inform the Deputy that the position has changed radically in the past year. Last October the Government issued instructions to Land Commission inspectors to draw up resale schemes for the land they had in stock. Last year they submitted schemes amounting to 30,000 acres, which was the highest ever. We hope to continue that trend during the next few years until we have allocated the land in stock.
Comment on this
Will the Minister not agree that despite orders issued the Land Commission have land in their possession from as far back as 1962? There was very little change in the position last year and the only orders issued last October were that no further land was to be acquired by the Land Commission for the time being.
Comment on this
No such instructions were given. I accept that in the past land has been held for considerable periods of time. In many cases the reason was that the land Commission hoped to be in a position to acquire further land in the area and thus to draw up better schemes.
Comment on this
As I stated, the position has changed. In the next few years we intend to press ahead until the amount of land held by the Land Commission is reallocated.