I have, through some of it. Comparing it with Mayo, with the County Galway generally, with Leitrim, Kerry and parts of Clare, there are very few congests in the County Meath in proportion to the amount of untenanted land available and to be dealt with. We deal first with all congests on the spot. I think that is the proper policy to adopt.
I agree with the Deputy that migrants generally get better holdings than the ones they have left. That is only right. You cannot take a man from a farm in Mayo, with a poor law valuation of £150, and give him a farm in Meath of £150 valuation. It would not be anything like a fair exchange. He has to be compensated, first of all, for the dislocation that is caused by reason of the fact that you are taking him out of one county and putting him into another. Further, a £150-valuation holding in places like parts of Galway would be a better holding, front a great many points of view, than a £150-valuation holding in Meath. The holding in Meath would be much smaller. There would be more room for development on such a holding in Galway. The land would not be quite so good, but taking everything into account, any working farmer would prefer a £150-valuation holding in Galway, or any county in the West, to a holding of the same valuation in County Meath, and he would be a good judge. A holding in County Meath carries a very much higher annuity per acre than the holding he has left. For instance, an annuity of £150 on 150 Irish acres in County Galway would leave him in a much better position than, say, a £250 annuity on a 150-acre holding of tiptop Meath land. You have to take all these circumstances into account: the fact that you cannot buy land as cheaply, the fact that the land will be very much dearer, the fact that the land is of such quality that the valuation will be high, and that there will be only a small area for a certain valuation. Generally, you will find that, on paper at least, the migrant always gets a considerably better holding than he leaves, and that is right, because there are always big expenses when a man is removing from a certain district. His system of farming is suited to that district; he knows it well; he has the tradition of farming in the district; and he loses money, no matter how careful he is, by having to start anew on land of different quality. That has to be taken into account, and he has to get full compensation for it. I say that, in view of the fact that the Deputy might quote plenty of cases in which a migrant had what looked like a considerably better holding than the one he had left. I say that on the merits, even apart altogether from the necessity to give compensation for disturbance, if examined it will be found that a migrant is in no better position. In any event, he should get some extra compensation for disturbance than he does as a rule. I can give the Deputy, if that is any good, the information I suggested, but I could not give him any more—that is to say, (a), (b), and part of (d). With regard to the organiser, he probably was in the Dáil, and heard my answers to the questions which the Deputy had put down, and so was able to go down to Meath and give full information on every question and as to every estate in which they were interested.