asked the Minister for Lands whether, as reported, the Cronly Estate, County Offaly, has been divided between smallholders and landless men; and, if so, when the priority making landless men eligible for allotments was altered.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Division of Offaly Estate.
24.
The selection of allottees by the Land Commission is governed by Section 31 of the Land Act, 1923, which sets out the various classes of allottees to whom advances for the purchase of parcels of land may be made. The following order of priority operates as a matter of a policy which has remained unchanged for many years:—displaced employees, uneconomic holders, migrants, trustees for communal purposes, cottiers, other landless applicants.
As regards the Cronly Estate, which originally comprised 303 acres, an area of 229 acres thereon was recently allocated. These lands were distributed amongst the former herd on the estate, an ex-employee and six local uneconomic holders. In addition, an amenity plot, comprising merely 1 acre, was allotted to a landless person who had purchased the site of a house on the estate some years previously.
Did the Minister say that the former herd on the estate got an allotment?
That is correct.
I was given to understand recently that the 1950 Act precluded such a man getting land?
It did not. There are other considerations under which herds are cut out.
I am only quoting what the Minister said to Deputy Dillon across the floor of this House in a public statement.