I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £1,173,950 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1957, for the salaries and expenses of the Offices of the Minister for Lands and of the Irish Land Commission (44 & 45 Vict., c. 49, sec. 46, and c. 71, sec. 4; 48 & 49 Vict., c. 73; secs. 17, 18 and 20; 54 & 55 Vict., c. 48; 3 Edw. 7, c. 37, 7 Edw. 7 c. 38 and c. 56; 9 Edw. 7, c. 42; Nos. 27 and 42 of 1923; No. 25 of 1925; No. 11 of 1926; No. 19 of 1927; No. 31 of 1929; No. 11 of 1931; Nos. 33 and 38 of 1933; No. 11 of 1934; No. 41 of 1936; No. 26 of 1939; No. 12 of 1946; No. 25 of 1949; No. 16 of 1950; No. 18 of 1953; and No. 21 of 1954).
The gross Estimate of £2,211,381 for Lands for the current year shows an increase of £74,006 over the gross total for last year—including the sum transferred to the Lands Vote from the Vote for Increases in Remuneration.
For sub-head A, salaries, wages and allowances, an increase of £29,808 is shown. Of this amount, over £29,000 represents the pay increase awarded last year to the Civil Service generally. The balance is accounted for by normal incremental increases. Since last Estimate the indoor staff has been reduced by 18.
The increase of £2,000 in sub-head B arises largely from a change in procedure before the Appeal Tribunal. As a result of court decisions it is now necessary for the Land Commission inspectors to give evidence before the Appeal Tribunal on questions of value and to undergo cross-examination by owner's counsel. This, of course, involves increased travelling for the inspectorate.
Over 37 per cent. of the entire Estimate is allocated to sub-heads H (1), H (2) and H (3) for making good deficiencies in the Land Bond Fund arising from the statutory halving of annuities—which alone accounts for £695,000—and other aids to land purchase. As the land settlement programme proceeds, new annuities are set up which call for additional provision under sub-head H (1), for costs fund, and H (3), for halving of annuities. This year it is expected that the halving of annuities will result in an increase of £13,000 under sub-head H (3) which, together with an estimated increase of £500 under sub-head H (1), gives a total increase of £13,500 under this group of sub-heads.
Almost 30 per cent. of the entire Estimate is allocated to the improvement of estates, including the erection and repair of buildings, the construction of roads, fences, drains and other works. This sub-head, more than any other, reflects the extent of the land settlement activities, as concentration on the relief of congestion involves heavy expenditure on improvement works, particularly buildings. This sub-head provides a substantial amount of employment particularly in the congested districts. Expenditure under sub-head I last year was £625,424, the highest for many years. For this year, additional provision has to be made for recent wage increases and the upward trend in cost of materials. The likelihood of some increase in expenditure through improved design for Land Commission houses also arises. In the course of last year's debate on this Estimate. I said that improved plans for dwelling-houses would be introduced. As an experiment, some houses have already been constructed to new plans near Trim, Navan and Oldcastle, County Meath, and others will be erected soon in Westmeath and elsewhere. Expert architectural advice has been sought and I have every confidence that the housing designs which will ultimately be adopted will be a distinct improvement on the past.
Certain deficiencies in funds such as the Local Loans Fund and Land Bond Fund are made good out of sub-head Q. These deficiencies arise when the Land Commission, having taken over land which is subject to a statutory payment, direct that the payment shall cease. The payments thus terminated are subsequently replaced by new annuities on the lands. The charge to sub-head Q is recurring and cumulative and an increased provision of £1,100 is required for this year.
As regards sub-head R, which deals with the purchase of land in the open market, I am this year proposing an increase of 50 per cent. in the amount of this sub-head. When I introduced the principle of open-market purchases into the Land Act, 1950, I envisaged the section as a means of augmenting the Land Commission's main programme for the laying-out of holdings by making available in significant numbers, holdings complete with all essential buildings and ready for occupation. It is, of course, a matter of importance that the Land Commission's use of this power should not monopolise this market to the exclusion of suitable private purchasers of land, or tend to inflate prices. A certain amount of caution is therefore essential.
It may also be mentioned that the number of holdings coming on the market, which would be suitable for the Land Commission's purpose, is limited. Generally speaking, the holding must be the right size, suitably located, comprise fair to good land, and be equipped with dwelling-house and outoffices in good repair; title must be reasonably clear and the price not prohibitive. Altogether 43 holdings containing 1,700 acres have been purchased under the section. With the knowledge and experience being gained in its operation, better results may be expected in the future. No effort will be spared this year to secure the maximum results and, accordingly, provision is made for an increase of £10,000 in this sub-head.
The amounts being provided under the other sub-heads of the Vote vary, if at all, to a small extent from last year's figures and do not call for any special comment.
As regards the general work of the Land Commission, it is gratifying to note that the drive for the completion of tenanted land purchase continues to show good results even though the rate of progress is inevitably slowing down as the residue of extremely difficult cases has been reached. Of 110,000 tenanted holdings, which vested in the Land Commission since 1923, there are now only 14,000 holdings left for vesting in the tenants. Vesting of all the tenanted holdings has been completed in County Carlow. In each of the ten counties of Cavan, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Wexford, the number of tenanted holdings still awaiting attention is less than 50. The total number of outstanding cases for these 11 counties is 168. For all practical purposes, therefore, the revesting of tenanted land has been virtually completed in the 11 counties I have named.
Some 12,800 of the 14,000 unvested tenanted holdings, to which I have referred, are situated in the western counties and, together with about 6,000 unvested holdings on the estates of the former Congested Districts Board, constitute the really hard core of congestion which still remains to be dealt with. About 9,000 of these holdings are in rundale or intermixed plots and require extensive rearrangement as well as enlargement and other improvements before vesting may take place. Scattered plots—sometimes upwards of 40 in a single holding— require to be consolidated into workable units; new dwelling-houses and outoffices have, in most cases, to be built and means of access and drainage are invariably unsatisfactory.
It is essential that additional land be obtained before a satisfactory and acceptable scheme of rearrangement for any group of intermixed holdings can be formulated. Scarcely any land is now left for acquisition or resumption in the immediate neighbourhood of the remaining acutely congested estates, however, and the migration of families from these districts is the only way in which land can be made available there to facilitate the rearrangement of the intermixed holdings, the abolition of rundale, and the improvement of conditions generally. Last year, it was found possible to migrate 102 families from congested areas to new holdings elsewhere.
Largely as a result of these migrations, the rearrangement, enlargement and improvement of close on 700 holdings in the congested areas was effected last year. This compares with a total of 607 holdings rearranged during 1954-55 and the increased output is most welcome and is the result of unremitting effort throughout the entire year on the part of the officials engaged on this highly skilled branch of the work. In the past few years over 2,500 families living on such intermixed holdings and comprising altogether up to 20,000 human beings have benefited greatly by these rearrangement schemes. For the information of those Deputies who are unfamiliar with the type of holding about which I speak, perhaps I may point out that in this branch of Land Commission work there arises a variety of problems, which at times appear almost insurmountable and, under the most favourable circumstances, occasion delays. Migration is inseparable from rearrangement but the natural reluctance of a family to leave the homestead, where they were born and bred, frequently constitutes a major problem in the initial stages of preparing a rearrangement scheme. Sometimes when everything is settled a prospective key-migrant will change his mind at the last moment and everything is back in the melting pot once more, after all the trouble and arrangements. Very often acquisition proceedings for the lands, which are to provide the new holdings for the migrants, are vigorously contested and as a result the proceedings are long drawn out. In contrast, the successful rearrangement schemes must be based on the consent and co-operation of the participating tenants. Prolonged negotiations by the inspectorate are essential to secure the necessary goodwill of the landholders. Very often, the more acute the congestion, and the intermixed condition of the old holdings, the more difficult it is to secure general agreement for a satisfactory scheme.
Resourcefulness of a high order, patience and tact are thus necessary to resolve the issues which come to the forefront once a rearrangement scheme is attempted. The delays which occur are attributable mainly to the difficulty of securing consent and co-operation when many landholders are involved. In the general exchange and reshuffle of disconnected plots to form composite holdings, there is rarely sufficient land available to satisfy the aspirations of all.
Having regard, therefore, to all the factors connected with this difficult work, I am most gratified with the results which have been obtained in the past year, which are the best yet achieved, and I will endeavour in the future to intensify to the utmost the sustained drive which is in progress and which has for its objective the eradication of all these remaining rural slums wherever they exist.
There is another feature of this work which I think is worth mentioning. Some Deputies, no doubt, are aware that the problem of fragmented holdings is not peculiar to this country but is also engaging attention in many countries of Europe. It has been a source of satisfaction to learn that in this particular business we are as efficient as any other country and better than many. To illustrate the general excellence of these rearrangement schemes which the Land Commission are operating and in order to demonstrate that our schemes can stand comparison with the best of rearrangement schemes completed abroad, I have placed in the main hall of the House two maps showing sections of rearrangement schemes—one carried out in this country and one abroad. The maps, in each case, show three badly intermixed holdings before and after they were rearranged. Before rearrangement, the three Irish holdings contained 93 intermixed plots which in the final result were plotted into as few as four compact divisions. Furthermore, the provision of new dwelling-houses and outoffices was necessary in the case of all the Irish holdings in this scheme but did not arise in the foreign scheme.
Whilst migration and rearrangement may—by reason of the publicity given to these activities—appear to the House to be the predominant feature of the land settlement programme, I would point out that such operations carried out last year absorbed less than half of the total area allotted, so that a fair balance is being maintained in this contentious work. In all, about 35,000 acres were allotted to some 1,900 allottees. Over 30,000 acres were acquired, resumed or taken over in exchange and over 7,700 holdings, parcels and rights of turbary were vested in tenants or allottees.
Before passing from this brief review of the Land Commission activities for last year I should like to pay a tribute to the staff—both outdoor and indoor. I can assure the House that they apply themselves wholeheartedly and efficiently to their work which for contention and difficulty is well above average. The acquisition and allotment of land are by no means the only functions of the Land Commission; each year, the collection of £2,500,000 from 500,000 payers is effected; upwards of 7,700 separate properties are vested, some 2,000 applications for consent to sub-divide holdings are examined and decided, almost £650,000 is spent on improvement works and, on top of all this, hundreds of letters have to be dealt with each day on a wide and most varied range of land business throughout the State. In the complexity and variety of its functions I think that the Land Commission is unique among State Departments.
In conclusion, I am pleased to be able to report that the collection of annuities is proceeding most satisfactorily. The amount outstanding at the 31st March, 1956, was £139,493 which is over £3,000 less than at the same time last year and represents only 0.26 per cent. of the total amount collectable since 1953.