asked the Minister for Lands the position regarding the Blake estate, Ballyglunin, County Galway.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - County Galway Estates.
83.
Possession of this extensive property, comprising upwards of 670 acres, has passed to the Land Commission. Most of the necessary local inquiries preliminary to allotment have concluded and work on the formulation of resale proposals is at present in progress.
84.
asked the Minister for Lands if the Farrell Estate, Seafin, Craughwell, County Galway, which is being offered for sale, will be acquired by the Land Commission with a view to division among the local tenants.
Arrangements are in train to have an inspection of this 220 acre holding carried out and the requisite notice under the Land Act, 1965, has been served on the owner's representatives. Until the inspection has been completed it is not possible to indicate what action may follow.
85.
asked the Minister for Lands if he will give particulars of the estates in the possession of the Land Commission in County Galway, giving the date of acquisition, the acreage, the name of each estate, the townland and the probable date of division.
Land Commission activities in County Galway are heavily concentrated and involve numerous estates and holdings. Many of the properties are of modest size and include remnants of Congested Districts Board estates, lands surrendered by migrants and small residues of partly allotted estates. The Deputy will appreciate that the extraction of the detailed information requested would entail a disproportionate expenditure of time and labour which would not be warranted. Moreover, as regards lands in the possession of the Land Commission for distribution, the position is subject to constant fluctuation depending on progress in intake and allotment—and the extensive information sought, even if staff were to be diverted specially to extract it, would be out of date within a short time.
In the circumstances, perhaps, it would meet the Deputy's requirements to know that at 31st March, 1968, the Land Commission had on hands in County Galway an aggregate area of some 5,500 acres of arable land to be used for land settlement in the county.
I may add that during the past five complete financial years, a total area of approximately 32,000 acres was distributed amongst 1,940 allottees in County Galway.