asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state how many acres of arable land are there in Eire; and whether, having regard to the progress and discoveries in other countries regarding the reclamation of land, any further acreage could be won back for cultivation if similar methods were adopted for this country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Acreage of Arable Land.
The arable acreage has not been precisely ascertained. I am not clear to what work in other countries the Deputy is alluding but I would refer him to the Farm Improvements Scheme which has been in operation under my Department since 1940 and to the Land Reclamation Scheme which was in operation in the congested districts from 1931. Under both schemes considerable areas have been reclaimed.
Perhaps the Minister could state the arable acreage for the last year for which he has it? The schemes I refer to were across the water where, apparently, land that never has been cultivated has been, under modern methods, brought under cultivation. Does the Minister contemplate any such thing in this country, either now or in the post-war period?
We have no exact information about the total arable acreage in the country, because our inspectors have only visited a small proportion of the farms in this country. The arable acreage is somewhere between 10,000,000 and 12,000,000, probably nearer to 10,000,000, as far as we can calculate it. With regard to the scheme of reclamation or bringing land into cultivation that the Deputy has in mind on the other side, that is precisely the sort of thing we have tried to have done under the farm improvements scheme.