asked the Minister for Lands if he will state whether Mrs. Margaret O'Brien, Grange, Turloughmore, County Galway, applied to the Land Commission to have her holding sub-divided in order to give portion of it to her son, Mr. Patrick J. O'Brien; and, if so, whether he will state (a) the date on which the application was made; (b) the date on which it was sanctioned by the Land Commission, and (c) the grounds on which consent to the sub-division was given.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Sub-division of Holdings.
It is not the practice of the Land Commission to disclose confidential information of this description.
Has it not always been the practice of the Irish Land Commission not to allow parent tenants of the Land Commission to sub-divide their holdings in favour of a son or daughter and creating an uneconomic holding by giving them a portion of their land?
The Land Commission watch very jealously to see that sub-division will not produce uneconomic holdings. My information is that this is not the case in this instance.
Arising further out of the Minister's reply, is it not a fact that out of these 68 acres sub-division which this Patrick J. O'Brien got from his mother and which the Land Commission have sanctioned, he has now got an additional 33 from the Land Commission in Monaghan's estate, Grange, Turloughmore, and that uneconomic tenants within a mile of it have got nothing?
That is a separate question.
I would invite the Deputy to put down a separate question on that subject, as the Chair has ruled that it is a separate question. I will then give the Deputy full information.
The Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary refused to meet the Galway T.D.s on the matter last week.
The Minister did not. The Minister arranged to meet a deputation yesterday and the deputation did not turn up.
For two days they have tried to meet him.