I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 91 and 92 together.
Speaking to the Agricultural Science Association on 21st September, 1962, I said:
"With the extent of rural congestion as I have described it, it goes without saying that, in future, every acre of land which becomes available for acquisition must be acquired to cope with it. It will be recalled that the Report of the inter-Departmental Committee made special reference to the number of western holdings vacated by owners and let to neighbouring farmers. This pattern, however, may not be entirely peculiar to the West. While undoubtedly there may sometimes be justifiable and compelling reasons for temporarily letting lands, there can be no justification for allowing land to be vacated indefinitely. The Committee recommended that where holdings are let and not properly worked or left vacant they should be acquired by the Land Commission for relief of congestion. The Government believe that, in the interest of relieving congestion, promoting proper land utilisation and preventing sizeable areas from falling into a derelict or semi-derelict condition, the Land Commission's statutory powers of acquisition will have to be more earnestly directed towards such lands in future.
Land of that kind is rarely looked after well and the trouble is that it tends to become more unproductive as time goes on, yielding nothing like it should to the sum of goods. The Government cannot tolerate that and owners will simply have to make up their minds to opt in or opt out. My directive to the Land Commission will be to adopt a stiffer attitude towards the owners of vacated lands. I have recently given public notice that I propose to direct the Land Commission to compile a Register of vacant and derelict holdings and lands that have been let for a period of 5 years or over. These people will receive an offer from the Land Commission to purchase their lands; if they do not sell or, alternatively, return, live on and effectively work their holdings, then I feel the Land Commission will have full support in using their wide compulsory powers for the acquisition of these lands. This country can no longer afford absentee landowners; they are just as detrimental to the common good as were the absentee landlords of former times."
It is not proposed that these measures be restricted solely to the West; and let me say also that the Land Commission will continue to consider on its merits the application of a landowner who, by reason of special circumstances, has to make a merely short-term temporary letting of his land.
