asked the Minister for Lands if he will state the acreage of land in West Galway (1) offered for afforestation purposes, (2) inspected and reported on, and (3) offered, but not yet reported on; and further, the reason for the delay in the cases not reported on.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - West Galway Forestry Lands.
I regret that I cannot furnish the Deputy with separate figures for West Galway. My Department's acquisition records are maintained on a county basis and it would involve the expenditure of an undue amount of official time to extract information relating to a large part of a county.
The position for County Galway as a whole is that at a recent date my Department had on hands a total of 254 offers of land for forestry purposes, with a total area of approximately 29,500 acres. Of these, 198 offers involving a total area of over 21,000 acres had been inspected and reported on and 56 offers with a total area of 8,500 acres were awaiting inspection. Preliminary investigations into registered ownership, rights, etc., involve a lapse of time between the date on which an offer is received and inspection but I can assure the Deputy that my Department is only too anxious to have areas offered to it inspected as rapidly as staff resources permit.