asked the Minister for Lands if the Land Commission will place at the disposal of small farmers for tillage, at an economic rental, lands in their possession and for which no allotment scheme has been prepared.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Provision of Tillage Lands.
It is the practice of the Land Commission to consider the requirements of local small farmers when letting for tillage lands in their possession which are not ready for allotment. Lettings are invariably made at economic rents.
I would like to ask the Minister whether, in view of the call made by the Taoiseach and the Government recently for an increased tillage drive, a call with which I am in agreement, he considers that the Department of Lands is setting a good example by holding, as it does at the moment, hundreds of thousands of acres of lands in its possession that are not being used for the purpose of tillage from one year to another. How does he or the Government hope to have any great success in this drive for which they are calling if land in the possession of the State is not being properly utilised?
I do not know that it is my province to answer supplementary questions based on such an inaccurate hypothesis as the Deputy's. Of course, the Land Commission has not hundreds of thousands of acres of land. The total amount of land in the machine at present is some 60,000 acres.
That would grow a fair bit of wheat.
That is the amount of land in their possession from the time the attention of the Land Commission is originally called to it until it is prepared for scheming and allotment. There is a procedure to be followed as the Deputy knows. In the case of lands on which it is proposed to place migrants it is often not possible in spite of the best efforts of the inspectors to arrange that the migrants will take up possession in a particular spring. The question arises of the spring work on two holdings, the holding from which the migrant comes and the holding he is going into. The general question of letting for grazing is being considered. I have asked the secretary and inspectorate to take certain steps in the matter.
Has the Minister made any inquiry as to how many of the 60,000 acres will be under tillage this year?
The Deputy should put down another question.
Run away from the issue.
Has the Minister considered the fact that the man is migrating from an uneconomic holding to a holding such as the Minister has in mind? Because the holding from which the person is migrating is uneconomic no tillage land is available.
I do not follow.