asked the Minister for Lands if he will indicate in respect of a recent date the plantable reserve available for afforestation, the area of land in course of acquisition, the area under consideration and the area under preliminary investigation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Forestry Lands.
At the end of February the reserve of land available for afforestation purposes (exclusive of the total area of 20,000 acres being planted in the current planting season) stood at approximately 49,000 acres.
As regards acquisition progress, the position at the end of the last quarter was that sales had been closed and possession was pending in respect of 42 areas with a total area of 3,122 acres, agreement had been reached to purchase 484 areas totalling 38,517 acres and negotiations for the purchase of 637 further areas totalling 51,060 acres were in progress. There were 2,873 cases involving a total area of 216,478 acres at the preliminary investigation stages. From past experience, however, it is estimated that up to 40 per cent. of all original offers do not finally come into the Department's possession being unsuitable for planting or available only at too high a price.
Has the Minister any indication of the number of cases that do not come in because of title flaws?
The Deputy would have to ask me a separate question. I am not sure if they are recorded as such.