asked the Minister for Lands if he is now in the position to state the total acreage of land in the hands of the Land Commission and let for (a) tillage, and (b) grazing by them this year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Commission Lands.
The Land Commission have on hands some 95,000 acres on estates taken over under the Land Acts 1923-1950. Of this area some 71,000 acres are bog, mountain and waste, while of the balance of 24,000 acres, 3,800 acres constitute rough grazing. Thus there are 20,200 acres of arable and good grazing lands on hands, of which 3,150 acres are let in tillage and the remainder in grazing. In this connection I would refer the Deputy to my reply of 17/7/'52 to the previous Question by him on this subject.
Would the Minister undertake that in the coming year the area under tillage will be greatly increased by the Land Commission?
When the time comes, Deputy, we will go into all the aspects of that.
Surely the time has come.
It is not next June that that matter should be decided.
Does the Minister not consider that the Land Commission is giving a very bad example to the rest of the country in that respect?
The Deputy knows a lot about it.
He knows that the officials have 20,000 acres under their control and are tilling only 3,000.