asked the Minister for Lands the cost to the Land Commission in each of the last ten years of (a) bringing prospective allottees from outside County Meath to that county for the purpose of viewing farms and bringing them home again and (b) transporting such persons to Meath when allotted farms.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cost of Transport of Migrants.
30.
Records are not compiled in such detail as to give the precise information requested and considerable time and effort would be necessary to extract it from the records of individual transactions. I would not feel justified, in present circumstances, in diverting staff for this purpose.
Perhaps it would meet the Deputy's requirements to know that, for the country as a whole in the seven-year period ended 31st March, 1961, the aggregate amount paid by the Land Commission in connection with the preview of holding by prospective migrants and the transfer of approved migrants was approximately £1,500 and £26,400 respectively.
Why is the information I have asked for not kept in the Minister's Department? Has he not got on record what it is costing to move migrants to see farms and move them back again?
What I told the Deputy is that I do not think it is justifiable to waste time getting this information for this particular year. I have given the Deputy the total amount spent under that head over the past seven years.
Does the Minister not agree that even if the time is wasted, as he says, it would be better to spend the time than the money spent on bringing these people to see farms?
I do not see the point of the Deputy's question. He was very quiet about migrants during the period he supported the Coalition Government. He was as mute as a mouse.
That is not so. I put in a motion and the Minister in fact voted against it.