asked the Minister for Lands if he is aware that a private individual took advantage of the curtailment of Land Commission operations to purchase a number of large estates in the County of Leix, including Brockley Park, Stradbally, and to sub-divide and sell such estates at war prices, to the detriment of uneconomic holders and landless men; and if he will state what he proposes to do to deal with this departure from well-established national policy.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Leix Land Purchases.
The Land Commission have no power or intention to prevent private sales of land by the owners. Such sales do not prevent the possible exercise in future of the powers of acquiring lands for division accorded to the Land Commission under the Land Acts. At present, the exercise of these powers is necessarily limited by the existing emergency conditions.
Is the Minister aware that the agreed national policy of this country with regard to land division has been violated, through individuals taking advantage of the Emergency Order immobilising the Land Commission? He is asked if he proposes to take any steps in the matter.
I have pointed out to the Deputy that the Land Commission has no power to interfere with sales of land and have no intention of doing so.
The Minister was not asked that the Land Commission should interfere with sales. The Land Commission had powers to acquire land for sub-division. An Emergency Order suspended the acquisition, and immensely wealthy individuals have taken advantage of that Emergency Order to buy up all the large estates in one county, to sub-divide them and sell them at war prices for profit, so that there will be no land left for sub-division. Does the Minister propose to lean back and allow that situation to exist?
Is the Minister not aware that this is a case of gambling with lives as well as with land, that many agricultural labourers and workers previously employed in large holdings of this kind have lost their employment as a result of this gambling in land?
The Deputies should be quite sure, when dealing with this particular case, as it has been dealt with before, that they stand on one particular foot and not try to shift from one to the other. When Deputies drew my attention to this matter first, they were not concerned with the land, but with the preservation of the house for hospital purposes.
The Minister's memory is at fault in that statement.
The Minister is quite clear in regard to the deputation which he met, composed of Deputies Flanagan, Davin and O'Higgins. They came to see me in regard to the buildings at Brockley Park, which they wished preserved for hospital purposes. I can only say that it would be gravely wrong for the Land Commission to interfer with the ordinary sale and exchange of land. I am not convinced that there is such a tremendous amount of speculation in land, and I have no proof of it. There have been certain cases where such speculation has gone on—perhaps in Offaly—but, generally, it is a disease that can be remedied only when the emergency situation has passed away and we can return to the ordinary work of the Land Commission. Anything done now will not prevent the Land Commission afterwards from taking any action they wish in regard to the sale of land.
I asked in this question if the Minister was aware that one individual had purchased five large estates in the comparatively small County of Laoighis. I did not catch the Minister's reply to that. I do not think he replied to it. I want to call the Minister's attention to the fact that he was incorrect—he may have seen more than one Deputy—in stating that, with the deputation of which I was a member, the concern was the buildings and not the land. The concern was the division of land.
And of the six workers.
Might I ask the Minister if he has given consideration to the proposal made on that occasion, namely, that another Emergency Order should be issued prohibiting the sub-division and sale of land purchased during the emergency? The Minister agreed to give sympathetic consideration to that proposal. We have not heard the results of the consideration yet. What is the result of the consideration given to that suggestion?
Is it not a fact that the deputation referred to was accompanied by the county councilors for the area and by a representative of the workers previously employed on the estate who indicated that they had got notice of loss of employment as the result of the gambling going on?
Let us be quite clear as to what these supplementaries are. Deputy O'Higgins asks me whether I am aware that nine estates in Offaly have been purchased.
Five estates in Laoighis.
I am not so aware. With regard to the purpose of the deputation which saw me in regard to the matter, I have a letter from Deputy Flanagan, who arranged the deputation, which suggests definitely that they were not concerned with the land but with the buildings. With regard to the question as to whether another Emergency Order should be made preventing the purchase and the resale of land, I think if such an Emergency Order were made, the Deputies who are now asking these questions would be asking further questions pointing out the enormity of such an Order.
The suggestion was not to prevent the purchase of land. It was to prevent the resale of land purchased during the emergency as a result of Land Commission inactivity. In view of the importance of this matter, cutting right across the track of agreed national policy, I would ask permission, Sir, to raise it on the Adjournment.