asked the Minister for Lands what progress has been made towards providing a satisfactory water supply for cattle for Mr. M. Boland, Bishopsland, Ballymore-Eustace, County Kildare, in accordance with the Land Commission's promise to him when he was allotted his present exchange holdings.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Water Supply for Kildare Farmer's Cattle.
11.
The allottee continues to use a power pump to supply water for the farm. He obtains a domestic water supply from a nearby pipe-line.
Just now, an Officer of the Department is engaged in testing a new filtration process with a view to improving water supply on these and other lands.
Is the Minister aware that on the last occasion he informed me that an officer from his Department who inspected the lands recently found water in what were alleged to be two ponds? The facts are that one of these alleged ponds is a dangerous ravine which was caused by the excavation of sand from the land about 100 years ago and, far from constituting an asset to the farmer for watering his cattle, his problem is to fill in the dangerous ravine, and that the other so-called pond consisted of a depression in the ground which collects water during the winter period. Is he aware that it is in fact a sludge cesspool and was previously used as a cemetery for the dead animals of the previous owner and that the bones of the cattle can be seen in the pond to-day? Does the Minister think, and does his colleague, the Minister for Health agree, that this is a suitable source of water for cattle used by a man for supplying milk, that they should be watered in a pool containing the bones of dead animals? I inspected these ponds and I should like to inform the Minister that whatever official told him these were suitable water pools should be sent immediately to kindergarten to do a course of nature study so that he will know what a pond is.
That hardly arises. The Deputy asked a very long question.
Can the Minister now give me some idea as to when this man, surrounded by water from the Poulaphouca lakes and bordered by a Dublin corporation water supply, will get for his cattle the satisfactory supply of water he was promised when the Land Commission took him out of a well-watered holding in Kerry and put him in what, for water purposes, is a Sahara in Ballymore-Eustace?
Everything is being done to give satisfaction to this man. At the moment, he is getting water from two satisfactory sources of supply.
I shall invite the Minister to go to this man's holding free of all expenses so that he can witness what I saw when I visited the holding. There was a satisfactory water supply on these lands but it was divided in such a stupid way by the Land Commission that two people have the water supply and this man has been left to look at a pond on another person's land which would provide water for his cattle if the Land Commission were living in the second half of the 20th century.
Would Deputy Norton not take it up with Deputy Blowick? It was done under Deputy Blowick.
Could the Minister tell me whether in the foreseeable future there is a likelihood of this man getting a satisfactory supply?
I have already said that that is being done. I must say that this dramatic revelation about the cemetery has not yet been notified to me.
It could be made an ancient monument. I shall come back to the matter in a fortnight's time.