asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will request the Land Commission to schedule our offshore islands and control the sale and purchase of these islands; if he will, if necessary, introduce legislation to deal with the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The work involved in scheduling all our off-shore islands, particularly if it involved establishing details of ownership, would make severe demands on scarce staff resources and would not be warranted. There is already power, under section 45 of the Land Act, 1965, to control the sale of land to unqualified persons, in effect companies and non-EC nationals.