In any reply which the Minister gave to the arguments put up to him on this section, I understood him to state the section was for the purpose of procuring more land, of ensuring there would be sufficient land to deal with the congestion that exists in different parts of the country. I do not think there is any foundation at all for that. Apart from the fact that I agree in toto with what Deputy Blowick, Deputy Flanagan and others have said, that it cuts across the freedom of the individual, I do not know why land owners should be treated in this manner. Any other property owner is entitled to do what he likes with his property.
The Irish Land Commission were created for the purpose of giving the people land, as far as possible, and giving them security and fixity of tenure. There are many instances in which it is necessary to let farms. I understand the mind of the Minister in introducing this Bill was that he believed he was going to create a land revolution in the west of Ireland, that he was going to confer considerable benefits on those who live in that area where the majority of congests exist. Surely this is not the right way to go about it?
As the Minister must know, many people, due to economic circumstances, have emigrated from the west of Ireland, as they have from many other parts of the country. Although they have been forced to emigrate because they are not in a position to carry on economically on the small holding, that holding is possibly as dear to them as is the property of any other owner in the State. Very often the land has been in the possession of the family for generations. Under this section if they find it incumbent on them for economic reasons to emigrate and to seek employment elsewhere, and they want to let the land, instead of doing what they did before, going to an auctioneer, as they should be entitled to do under a free Constitution, to sell that land, they must inform the Land Commission.
What puzzles me about this—I am sure it puzzles many other people, too, because the Minister must know there is tremendous opposition to this section and the section which we shall be discussing later—is that foreigners can come in and buy land and not be asked to go to the Land Commission and register there. An Irish citizen, if he wishes to let his land, must trot along to Merrion Street and inform the Minister and his officials what he intends to do. In the glorious redistribution of land envisaged in this Bill, this unfortunate person from the west of Ireland or from County Cavan, Deputy Dolan's area, where the farms are not so big and the farmers not so rich, will find his farm seized by the Land Commission and handed over to his neighbour. That is the system embodied in this Land Bill from beginning to end, as far as I can read it.
It is incumbent on the Minister to explain to the House what exactly is in his mind in this section, why it has come about that he is introducing legislation like this which is contrary to the ordinary principles of freedom. There seems to be a great advance in State control generally these days, but when State control is advocated, it is for a specific purpose. The Minister says the purpose of this is to enable him to get more land, to enable him to deal with the situation of congests as a whole. This House is entitled to a full explanation as to how he believes that will operate, how he believes this will enable smallholders, not only in his own part of the world but throughout the country, to benefit.
On the question of there being any difficulty on the part of the Land Commission in getting land, there is none in the wide earthly world. The Land Commission have today more land than they are able to deal with. In fact, as I ascertained in reply to questions, in my own county, the Land Commission are doing the very thing they do not want the ordinary tenant farmer, the person who owns a farm, to do. The Land Commission are letting land and they are not letting it for three months or six months but for two years. In reply to a Parliamentary Question I asked recently in this House as to the amount of land held by the Land Commission in my constituency, I was told it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,500 acres, and the Minister hurriedly said they had distributed 850 acres since 1962. This is now 1964. He did not say what the Land Commission are doing with the land they had on hands. I can tell him. They are doing the same thing as the Minister is endeavouring to stop the farmer who owns the land from doing. Why should there be one law for the Land Commission and another law for the ordinary people of Ireland? We Irish farmers, by our contributions to the State, by the payment of taxes and land annuities, are contributing to maintain the Land Commission in existence. Why should they have rights over and above any of us?
The Minister knows the struggle that went on so that the people could own the land. He knows the difficulties with which they had to contend, how their forefathers had to fight and go through every danger, how in many cases they were forced to emigrate, never to see their native shore again. Nevertheless, we have reached the unhappy situation in 1964 when a Fianna Fáil Government bring in a Bill like this. The Minister must know there is widespread opposition to this Bill. There have been representations from the National Farmers Association, from the Landowners Association and from practically every group concerned with land in this country. This section and the subsequent section have aroused the indignation of everybody. They have aroused not only indignation but a feeling of insecurity for the future.
One of the greatest assets of land and a very necessary prerequisite of owning land is land security and fixity so that one can plan in advance what one will do. I have referred to emigrants. Wexford is considered rather better off than some of the counties on the western seaboard. I do not think it is but it is supposed to be. Even in Wexford, it is a regular occurrence that people let their land and go to England for the purpose of saving capital and returning to restock their lands. That is very desirable. They save money and come back, bringing assets into the country. They buy stock and set themselves up in a strong position in the farm. When they come back, they may find that the Land Commission have seized their land because they have to go to the Land Commission and say: "Please, may I let my land?"
I am surprised that the Minister, who is supposed to be a member of what claims to be a democratic Party, should introduce in a democratic State with an agricultural history such as we have had over the centuries, a Bill such as this with a section such as this, which is absolutely dictatorial, giving to the State powers that he will not allow to the ordinary farmer. If the Land Commission themselves took land and divided that land straight away and had a plan for the division of land, or if they even left it to the owners to let it until it was ready for division, it would not be so bad but they want to take the land from the individual and do the letting themselves. If that is justice, I do not know what views the Minister must have of the cardinal principles of justice in relation to Irish landowners.