I had been dealing with the giving of farms which are waterlogged to people who have no means of availing of land reclamation schemes. It is the duty of the Land Commission before allocating such land to see that it is drained. If it is not, it should not be given to anybody unless he can avail of a land reclamation scheme. It is disgraceful for the Land Commission to expect a family to come a long distance and try to earn their living on 27 acres of land, half of which is waterlogged and two-thirds of which is covered with rushes. They should give that family a holding upon which they can live. It should be remembered that these people are not getting something for nothing. They have to pay their rents, rates and taxes over 60 years and I can tell Deputies that will be a dear little farm at the end of that period.
Part of the Land Commission estate at Summerhill is being held back for a number of years and I cannot understand why they are not allocating it. Some of the estate is in forestry and some has gone to local people, but I cannot understand why a scheme was not introduced long ago whereby all this land could be utilised. There are two cottage tenants with families who have been living within that demesne for the past 30 or 40 years and who have ways and means of working the farm. They had cows on an adjoining farm, but they had to sell them when the Land Commission took over the farm and divided it. They did not get an acre; surely they are entitled to the land left on the estate. I would ask the Minister to consider the position of these people. They had a cow or two, but the Land Commission came in and dispossessed them. They tried to hold the cow on the road but failed and had to sell it and the result was that now there are only two old goats on the road. That is not fair to people of this type, people who are able and willing to work and to remain on, and who have sons to follow them.
The Crowley Estate, which is near the town of Trim, is also a very important estate and one which has very good quality land. People came from America, Europe and several other places to see the type of soil on that land. That land will be allotted some time, but I should like to see a proper scheme worked out so that it will not be cut up into small patches. I hope the people put on the holdings, which should be of a decent economic size, will get a proper living from them.
The Murray Estate at Tanderagee is an estate to which four large migrant families were brought last year while at the same time all that was allocated to a neighbour were five acres of scraggy land miles away from anywhere. At the same time, there was a man who had 25 acres of land, taken for the best part of 20 years, which he had stocked and worked himself. He was ignored and thrown on the side of the road. He had the ways and means to work it but the Land Commission saw fit to leave him high and dry and he had no land, not even on the eleven months system. More consideration should be given to people of that type.
It is the very same in the Slane area. Three or four Meath men were asked to sign forms some years ago and were practically told by the local inspector that they would be suitable men to get land elsewhere. They signed the forms under the impression that they would get holdings somewhere in the vicinity but they were left high and dry. It is not fair to leave such cases on the long finger. If a man is told: "You are eligible and suitable for land; sign this form and we will look after you," it is not fair to do nothing for three or four years, leave him in suspense all the time, and then bring in somebody from outside and throw him aside.
In regard to pumps on Land Commission holdings, I think we should work in conjunction with the country councils. We do not want to see the Land Commission putting up a pump on one side of a holding and the county council putting another one up on the other side. There should be joint consultations to spare money and let the pump serve everybody. At present the Land Commission sink a pump 15 to 20 feet on the farm and regard that as being enough. When May or June comes along, the pump runs dry and there is no water for three months. It is most essential that holdings should have water, no matter what the cost, and a proper pump should be sunk if there is no water supply on the farm. There is no point in giving out farm land which has no water because it is a big task to have to draw water all the year round.
I should also like to see proper co-operation between the Land Commission and the county councils in regard to making roads. In the past, there was very little co-operation but in the past two years there has been more. In county Meath, we have embarked upon a scheme of making public roads out of lanes which are of considerable public utility, and even out of culs-de-sac. When the Land Commission make a road, we should like to see them making it a reasonable size and in places which will suit the county council, so that when the Land Commission step out, the county council can step in. There should be co-ordination between the county council and the Land Commission in all these schemes.
It is unfortunate that, in 1932, 1933 and 1934, we started off on the migrant scheme by giving 19 to 20 acres of land to allottees. That was the greatest number of acres they got. I once heard the Taoiseach say that 12 acres were sufficient for any man but he did not worry very much about the land. We have hundreds of people of this type in the county Meath with 19, 22, or 24 acres of miserable land and these people are expected to live off that land. Then we come along to give up to 37 or 40 acres of land with a better type of house and two new outoffices, whereas in the past we gave a rotten type of house and one poor outoffice.
If times get slightly worse for these people, they will sell out and I know many of them who are contemplating doing so at the moment. They are put to the pin of their collars to live there at all and they have a cruel existence. When an estate is being divided up, people will go a reasonable distance, three or four miles, to get a number of acres. People just cannot live on 20 statute acres and they have not got the slightest hope of getting land on the eleven months system. As I said, if times get bad, they will sell out and we shall be back where we were 40 years ago. We shall have the big land holder coming back again and the small men being squeezed out. I should like to see those people who received small holdings at the commencement of land division being reconsidered for common grazing of 20 or 50 acres on an estate.
I am glad the Minister is looking into the position of game preservation. I hope he will be slow to bring in any scheme that will infringe on any individual's rights. A man is fully entitled to his farm, to his home and to his shooting rights and I would not support any enactment which would deprive the individual of those rights. We should do what we can to preserve game by the destruction of vermin. If we can destroy the vermin which are detrimental to game, we shall be going very far. People have been waiting scores of years to own their own shooting rights and in most cases they own them now. They should be left with the right to sell the shooting rights to anybody they like. If we can agree on the destruction of vermin, we can bring in something which will be satisfactory to all, but let us not infringe on the rights of the individual.
I am a member of the game preservation committee in Meath and the farmers there are afraid we shall infringe on their rights. They must be told clearly that we shall not. If they know that, they will join in the organisation and help it in every way they can. In the past, very few people had shooting rights even on their own holdings. They are in the happy position now that they can shoot over their own land or their neighbour's land with his goodwill. What we want is the goodwill of the people, and we can have it if it is properly explained to them that we do not intend to infringe on their rights.
We shall then be in the position that we can destroy the vermin which is so destructive and dangerous. It is the vermin, and not the poacher with the gun, that do the most damage. It is no harm for us to rid the country of the scaldcrows, the foxes and the magpies. They destroy thousands of eggs and young birds in every county. When they have gone, the game stocks will go up by leaps and bounds. Nowadays meadows are cut around 5th June to 12th June. We used to cut them between 12th July and August, when the game were strong and fit to fly, but now with the early cutting of the meadows, a hen pheasant or a partridge can be killed in the nest.
I appeal to the Minister to take into consideration some of the matters I have mentioned in connection with the grievances we have. I ask him to give us more consideration when he is sending migrants. We welcome migrants when they come. That is a national and social problem and we have no objection to them when they are good, decent hardworking people. I want the Minister to try to devise some scheme which will be of more advantage to the people in the locality. The cottier with a family is entitled to have a cow. A cow is most essential in the rearing of children. In the past, the Land Commission embarked on a scheme of giving seven or eight acres to people, but they did not consider the type of people to whom they were giving the land. They did not envisage that the moment it was vested in them, it would be sold. Land should be given to men of character and ability, who will have families coming after them, and they have also a right to be able to keep a cow and some calves. If a man is respectable, works hard, and takes on some other work when he can, he will not think of emigrating. He should be given a chance to settle down in his own country. If there were co-operation between the migrants and the local people, many grievances could be avoided. If we could have a 50-50 bargain, we would be satisfied.