asked the Minister for Lands if he will make a general statement on the Government's land policy; if he will state whether cottage tenants are excluded from getting portions of lands under that policy, whether no landless man can be given land and whether it is the practice of the Land Commission to give land to old age pensioners or unmarried persons.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Policy.
I would refer the Deputy to my reply of the 10th March, 1948, to a similar question.
In view of the fact that we have been given to understand that the Minister has been reconsidering the question of recommending to the Land Commission that cottage tenants be eligible for portions of land, can the Minister now say if he has reached any decision as a result of the reconsideration he has given to this matter?
The matter of these allottees is dealt with in the reply to the question to which I have referred the Deputy. That reply has been repeated here time and time again and I think the Deputy was in the House and heard it.
Can the Minister say if it is the Government's policy to debar cottage tenants from securing portions of land from the Land Commission?
It is not.
Then is it the Government's policy to permit applications from cottage tenants to be favourably considered by the Land Commission? If it is not the one, it must be the other?
It is Government policy, and the Deputy is aware of it, because he was told it by myself.
Will the Minister say if the Land Commission is precluded by any Act from considering the claims of landless persons in sub-division schemes?
The whole procedure in reference to allottees is set out in Section 33 of the 1933 Land Act and in the section which embodies the provisions of that section in the 1950 Land Act. The procedure is set out there for the information of the Deputy and whoever else is interested. During the period when the 1950 Land Bill was going through the Oireachtas, that particular point was thrashed out and I explained it in detail.
Had the Minister any reason for telling the deputations that he met from the Midlands that this matter was decided by the Land Act of 1939?
Yes, because certain sections of the 1939 Act impinge on that very question.