asked the Minister for Lands if it is the policy of the Land Commission to acquire compulsorily land on which a deposit has been paid by a farmer of £40 valuation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Compulsory Acquisition of Land.
55.
The determination of lands to be acquired is an excepted matter reserved to the Land Commissioners. In practice, the circumstances of each individual case are considered on their merits, the primary consideration, of course, being the relief of congestion.
The Minister has not given me the answer to my question. I want to know is it the policy of the Land Commission to acquire land compulsorily where a farmer who has three sons has worked his way up, has paid a deposit on this land, has only £40 valuation of his own and is paying up to £1,000 a year in eleven-month system lettings? Is that the policy of the Land Commission or is it not?
I have said that every decision depends, not alone on the particular circumstances of the individual but upon the question of whether there is local congestion or not. It would appear from the valuation given by the Deputy that the person he has in mind has a fairly substantial holding.
The person in mind has three sons and there is Fianna Fáil activity in the area to have land divided on which he has paid a deposit.
If the Land Commission have intervened in this matter, I am quite satisfied that there is acute congestion in the area. As there are a number of local congests, I take it the Deputy does not want the Land Commission to relieve acute congestion in the area.
I believe the rights of a man who has worked his way up should be considered.
Would the Minister agree it is the duty of the Land Commission, where an estate comes on the market, to acquire that estate for division among neighbouring uneconomic smallholders, the vast majority of whom have from 14 to 17 acres only, many of them with large families? Furthermore, would the Minister not agree that the Land Commission should be particularly concerned where they themselves a number of years ago gave these uneconomic landholders the land they now have and which may have been economic then but which is uneconomic now?
Now we know who started it.
It is the duty of the Land Commission, where acute congestion exists, to acquire any property they can acquire when it comes on the market.