At question time to-day I put a question to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Lands in relation to land in the bands of the Land Commission for sub-division in County Dublin, the land in course of acquisition and the land contemplated to be acquired. Many people in County Dublin inquired from me how they would ascertain what land is available for distribution. I asked them why they wanted this information and they stated that they wanted land and had written to the Land Commission for particulars of land available for distribution. In reply they received a form which, among other things, required an answer to these questions: Where do you require the land? On what estate do you require the land? Give the exact name of the estate and address and reference number, if you know it. How is any working man or smallholder in County Dublin or in any other county to get that information if he does not get it from the Land Commission? They failed to get it from the Land Commission.
I took up the matter on their behalf about three weeks ago and wrote to the Land Commission for the particulars I have asked for in this question. I have not got even an acknowledgment of my letter since. Then I put down this question: "To ask the Minister for Lands if he will give the names and locations of estates in County Dublin (a) acquired by the Land Commission, (b) in course of acquisition, and (c) the acquisition of which is contemplated for sub-division among uneconomic holders and landless men." The reply to that question was both stupid and evasive, but the evasion in it would not fool anybody The Parliamentary Secretary has been three or four years in the Land Commission. I spent nine years there in a capacity in which I had to work and got very little pay. The Parliamentary Secretary occupies a position in which there is very little work and plenty of pay, and the people of the country who are paying him are entitled to get information which they require.
In his answer to my question the Parliamentary Secretary said: "The statistical returns of the Land Commission show that, under the Land Acts, 1923-33, in County Dublin, to date, (a) 39 estates, comprising a total area of 7,664 acres, have been acquired by the Land Commission for division." I did not ask that question at all. I asked how much land they had acquired and had in hands for sub-division, and he did not answer that question. rlicn the tnswer went oil (b) 30 estates, comprising 5,265 acres, are in definite course of acquisition (that is to say, they have reached the stage of gazetting or the making of an offer for purchase). (c) 69 estates, comprising 11,768 acres, have been inspected, or referred for inspection, as to suitability and price, but have not yet reached a further stage." That is 138 estates in all, and about 25,000 acres. Here is the Parliamentary Secretary's final comment: "It is not the practice of the Land Commission to supply information as to the names and location of estates dealt with or in process of acquisition. Apart from other objections, the resulting diversion of the Land Commission staff from the much more urgent work of land division is not desirable."
If the Parliamentary Secretary gave that answer to an American backwoodsman, even he would not be satisfied. What has the giving of this information to do with the work of sub-division? Who will give this information? A clerk, perhaps earning £2 per week. Is that man a material cog in the wheel of acquiring land for sub-division? What is the delay in land division? Inspectors, objections, hearings, price, arbitration, proving of title. How in the, name of honesty and decency would the giving of this information by the clerk delay the work of land division? I will guarantee that, if I am given access to the books—and I know more about them than the Parliamentary Secretary—I will get that information in half an hour. It is pure dishonesty to give an answer like that.
How is it that certain people in County Dublin, as well as in other counties, can get this information? They have it in all the Fianna Fáil clubs. Is this a national Government or a political Government? Are the fag-ends of estates to be given to Fianna Fáil organisers and propagandists in County Dublin and elsewhere, to be hawked about and sold at a profit of a couple of hundred pounds? Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware of that? Does he know what I am hinting at? If he wants more information I will give it to him. Here are 138 estates or farms to be taken over. All that is needed to be written in is the name of the townland. The registers are available in the Land Commission. The Parliamentary Secretary knows or should know that there are head or chief inspectors in the Land Commission who are over so many sub-inspectors or surveyors, a certain number being alloted to each county. Then there are clerks corresponding to the outdoor staff dealing with these matters in the office. All that is necessary is to refer this to the inspector dealing with the County Dublin who would give the information to the clerk and the information would be ready in half an hour. There would be no diversion of staff from the work of the Land Commission. We can cut out that as so much eyewash.
The fact remains that a person who is entitled by precedent and by all the rules of the game to a piece of land, when land is being divided will get a form to fill up and will be asked: "Where do you want land?" He does not know what land is available, and when he asks the Land Commission to tell him where available land can be located, they will not reply to his letter. I was asked as a public representative to write to the Land Commission and I did so, but they did not answer my letters.
I asked the Parliamentary Secretary here to-day, the man who has in the neighbourhood of 21,000 a year from this State, and he said "No," he would not answer me. He gives figures that have no relevancy to the matter. Is the policy of the Government to be boiled down to this, that people in this county and other counties, who feel they are entitled to parcels of land, are to be given no assistance in getting extra land? What are they told to do? They are told to fill the prescribed form and answer the query: "Where do you want the land?" They do not know What land the, Land Commission has, the Land Commission will not tell them, and they have no direct means of finding out. Are they to be allowed to say: "We will have Pat Murphy's land close to where we live?" Will a dozen more around Pit Murpby's holding send in similar requisitions and, if sufficient of those are sent in, will that be considered good enough by the Land Commission to make the case that there is congestion, that there is a demand for land and they must take Pat Murphy's land at any price they like, and, if Pat Murphy dares to stand up in defence of his home and his land he is going to be boycotted, and the Government by this machinery will intimidate Pat Murphy into giving his land at any price? On the other hand, are we going to have he Land Commission as the people's servant instead of the people's tyrant? It is a public Department, paid for good work, I hope, paid to give information to the public, and yet, it refuses to give that information. I think that I would be destroying the case trying to labour it too much. The facts are these, that there are hundreds of people in County Dublin and I presume in other counties who feel they can work land and who want, to get parcels of land if there is any available. They are not out to confiscate the land of others. If the Land Commission has land available, those people want a fair chance; they do not want to follow as slaves the tail-ends of the runners and camp followers of the Fianna Fáil clubs in County Dublin or any other county. They want to get what is their right, and they are prepared, to apply for that and take the chance of a fair square deal in getting a parcel of that land. They are denied information by the Fianna Fáil Government as to what land the Government has acquired or is about to acquire, to be paid for with public money. The Land Commission will not tell those people where the land is. They will not give those people a fair chance of applying for that land.
I presume the first the public will know about land being acquired will be when they learn that the camp followers of the Fianna Fáil organisation in County Dublin and other counties are being given holdings. I will not comment on some of those people beyond saying that they have not been a shining success in working land or doing any labour. I have a fair idea of how the information is spread through those clubs. Certain people will be told "Apply for Iand that is acquired in certain places, and you will get it." It is just like case of a, leading light of Fianna Fáil who bought a farm from the Land Commission about a month ago for a couple of hundred pounds and who, I am reliably informed, has now sold it for £400. Is the Land Commission going to be used to provide land for land jobbers and hawkers instead of for land workers? I leave the Parliamentary Secretary to tell us how the land worker is going to get a fair deal in County Dublin and I presume the same applies to other counties
