Anybody who has, even for a short time, been associated officially with the Land Commission is very much curbed in his criticism and suffers even the further disadvantage of believing that most of the criticism he hears in the Dáil is rather ill-directed. I think we ought to take a more realistic view of the problems that confront the Land Commission. Deputies fail to realise the fact that the policy of the Land Commission is set out in legislation. Unforeseen difficulties and new conditions have brought about changes in that legislation. To-day's policy is governed by the latest Land Act, which the present Minister introduced some years ago.
In that Act, the Minister, like his predecessors, almost deprived himself of any authority to interfere with Land Commission administration. If any criticism is to be aimed at the Land Commission, it should be aimed rather at the officials than at the Minister. Most Deputies speaking here have paid glowing tributes to the officials. The Minister himself said that their resourcefulness was of a high order, their patience unwearying, their tact immeasurable. Whatever may be said about Deputy Corry's £700, the Minister said that about the officials. Because Deputies continue to aim at the wrong target and because the strategy of their attack is not coherent or well-directed, the Minister and the officials manage to retain their scalps year after year.
The Minister informs us that he has allotted 35,000 acres of land. In my opinion, that is a remarkable achievement. I am of the belief that any proposals from Deputies to increase the acreage allotted annually could only result in unwise and ineffective effort. But again, the Minister said he divided 35,000 acres among 1,900 allottees and that means that the average resultant holding was only about 18 acres. Many Deputies have pointed out here that that amount of land is not an economic holding. There is no use in perfectionists making comparisons with European countries, because economic conditions in this country are altogether different. It is my opinion that anything less than 50 acres of reasonably good land is not an economic holding and if the Department is to continue with the present policy, which actually results in the creation of uneconomic holdings, it is merely indulging in a very expensive and ineffective form of social welfare.
The Land Commission has been for many years in operation and it has spent many millions of pounds; yet, by the test of agricultural production, no improvement has been achieved. It may be that a relatively small number of families have had their economic position improved, but that does not justify the Department. The general situation agriculturally has not been bettered by the activities of the Land Commission. There has been no general improvement in the nation's economic position as a result of its efforts. Social welfare, in Mayo or elsewhere, like patriotism, is not enough.
Might I suggest to the Minister that there is in this country no farming ladder, no opportunity for a young man of energy and experience and with a certain amount of capital to get into farming? There are many men of farming experience owning adequate stock, equipped with adequate machinery, but with little capital who, with their families, remain bound to the wheel of the 11 months system. These are the people who, as Deputy Crowe says, if given an opportunity, would certainly make a success of the Land Commission efforts. The Land Commission, when they acquire certain estates, should divide them into farms of 60, 80 or 100 acres and let them to such young farmers on an annuity basis, at the full cost of the land and improvements. Only by taking such action will you have anything done in the way of helping agricultural production. Deputy McQuillan spoke about allottees needing machinery and fertiliser. The people I speak of would require no such help. Give them the land. They have the cattle, the machinery and a certain amount of capital. Do not bother with them any further and they will pay you the full amount back and will be an asset to the country.
The Minister should give a definition of what a congest is. Is every man who, in the official congested areas, owns one or two or three acres in a rundale of ten or 12 patches, to be regarded as a congest and is he to be relieved by the Land Commission? Surely a congest must be and ought to be a potential farmer? Otherwise, the Land Commission might do away with the Ministry and operate under the Department of Social Welfare. It seems to me the pool of land has dried away "as plain as plain can be"; otherwise, the Land Commission officials in County Cork would not be so zealous in their pursuit of those who own little patches of ten or 12 acres. It seems to me the Land Commission are wasting their time in that activity and that the Minister should have that matter examined.
The constitution of my friend and ancient comrade, Deputy Giles, is unchanging. It still protects life, liberty and the unwearying pursuit of Oliver Cromwell. He never fails to mention Oliver. When I listened to him talk, it seemed to me that it was not so much the Land Commission that was under fire as the Ordnance Survey. If there are so many farms of land of 1,000 acres and still more in County Meath ripe for acquisition, then the boundaries of County Meath on the map must not be what they should be. There must be some error by those who surveyed County Meath. The Minister might look into that and see if the County Meath maps are right, because if Deputy Giles is offering us 1,000-acre farms ad lib., there is something wrong somewhere.
I was very interested in finding Deputy McQuillan practically absolving the Fianna Fáil clubs from the charge of intimidating the Land Commission. "For this relief—much thanks." As he grows in stature and in experience, we will find Deputy McQuillan a pilgrim with staff and scrip, going the whole way to Canossa, forgiving us for every evil that Fianna Fáil has ever done to the country.
Deputy McQuillan points out to us that the Minister was elected by the congests of County Mayo to solve the problem of congestion and to relieve them of all their troubles. And what happens? According to Deputy McQuillan, the Minister arrives here with the oil of the congests' benediction wet on his brow and immediately he becomes the Lord Protector, adequately warted, of the Colonel Blimps and the Colonel Brambles coming over here in their ignoble retreat from the advance guard of Moscow, Messrs. Bevan and Pollitt. This is the Freudian centenary and it is very interesting to have such an incisive examination of the Minister's Jekyll and Hyde psychology made by Deputy McQuillan.
Mark you, I cannot go the whole way with Deputy McQuillan. I cannot quite see the Minister, Deputy Blowick, in the role of Lord Protector. I think he is politically too astute to be too deeply concerned for the success of the strategic retreat from the shadow of the Kremlin and I think he is too astute to worry too much about the charges of political corruption in the making of appointments levelled at him by Deputy McQuillan. Indeed, I fail to understand the puritanical indignation of Deputies Beirne and McQuillan in the matter of the appointment of a stockmaster in County Roscommon, or anywhere else. Why we should for one moment appoint an interview board, or a commission, to fill every tuppence-half-penny impermanent post, passes my understanding.
Protesting Deputies might remember that perfectionism is as arid a doctrine as predestination, and just as self-righteous. The Minister, because of his own local knowledge and because of the knowledge he can acquire, even from the Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Donnellan, is in the best position to make such an appointment. Not merely in the public interest, but in his own interest as well the Minister will appoint to any post he fills a man who is capable of doing the work and, having fulfilled that first condition, the Minister is politically unconscious if he does not appoint a man who is a supporter of his own Party. That is my view. It may be—I do not know— that Deputy McQuillan is a secret supporter of the Minister and wants his cut. It may be, judging by the indignation of Deputy Beirne, that he, too, is aggrieved in some fashion. At any rate, if I were a Minister for Lands— which God forbid—I certainly would appoint my own supporter and give nobody any thanks for it, so long as I had a man who would do the job.
Deputy McQuillan said at column 1505 of Volume 157:—
"I am convinced that if anything is to be done in connection with this major problem, it is not inside this House it will be done."
I do not quite know how to understand that statement. If it means that an organisation may be set up with adequate capital and sufficient altruism to buy up and divide land according to legal methods, I do not suppose the Land Commission could very well object. But, if it does mean that any organisation is to be set up outside to browbeat the Land Commission, the Minister and the Government, the Minister can be assured of adequate support in this House and throughout the country. Many people have fostered in themselves the belief that they have a specific claim to land because they live in a particular area. I do not care whether they live in Mayo or Tipperary: it is the business of the Land Commission to divide and give land in the best interests of the nation and not in the interests of any particular person; and no one person more than another has a better right, unless he comes within the ambit of Land Commission policy.
I was interested in the Minister's statement about the design of dwelling-houses. I think this is a very welcome innovation and I suggest it should not stop here. I think the Minister would be doing a good day's work if he got his architects and his land experts to design a farmstead. In these days of automation and of definite farm labour shortage, the average Irish farmstead is an anachronism. The Minister would be doing something really valuable if he directed his mind to that problem and got his people to look into it.
The task of the Minister for Lands is a thankless one and the Minister has all my sympathy. My heart bleeds for him. I hope the voice of the people will soon relieve him of his onerous responsibility and let him go back to a peaceful and pleasant life amongst the congests whom he loves.