It has taken the Bill quite some time to get this far particularly after the court case of 1965. There is quite an amount I should like to see done on the Curragh. It is a pity to see such a wide range of land being farmed in such a way as to grow the least possible amount of grass for good agricultural land. It has not been manured for centuries I suppose, but certainly not in our lifetime. It is just used for grazing sheep in the same way as sheep are grazed on the mountains of Wicklow or any other mountains in the country. The land is now farmed in the same way as mountain land is farmed. Very little grass is grown on the Curragh. With modern agricultural methods that land could produce twice or three times the amount of grass it is producing at present, and we could have extra sheep as well.
The Minister should seriously consider if he could create more claims. If he could do that, he could use the money to fertilise the Curragh every year and use whatever normal agricultural methods would be advisable. The Minister has jurisdiction over the Curragh but he does not get any revenue from it. He has to pay four employees. When in this age we need higher production it is sad to see the same type of farming that is carried out in the mountains being carried out on the Curragh. The sheep are not fattened. They are kept in store condition. Lambs are never fattened but are sold as store lambs. In a matter of public ownership we should be setting a better example. The county committee of agriculture put a few tons of lime in the Ballymany area some years ago. It showed results but was only the start of what should be a manuring process.
If we look at the land that has been fenced off we can see the amount of grass growing there where it has been fertilised, manured and landscaped. This makes you think that it should be done on the outside also. Particularly on Derby day one notices the luxurious green grass growing there which is highly fertilised. This shows what could be done in the Curragh. The grass on the gallops and on the race track is exactly the same as it has been for the past 100 years. I seriously consider that the Minister should set up a commission to investigate the possibility of creating more claims. The present claims were created under the Curragh of Kildare Act, 1870, and consolidated in the Curragh of Kildare Act, 1968. The commission which was set up decided on a pattern of roughly one and a half sheep per statute acre. The same number of sheep as were on that land in 1870 are on it today, but production on agricultural land in other parts of the country has gone up four or five times that amount. Our exports of cattle in 1870 were quite small, something around 50,000. As many as that are now exported in a month. The land of Ireland is producing more as a result of progressive and good husbandry but here in the Curragh we are still standing where we were years ago. A State body should do more than stand stationary. We have always thought that the State should set an example to the rest of the community.
In the last Land Act the Minister for Lands left the way open for commonage to be divided up among the owners if they desired. Here we are still consolidating to go back to that system. When the Land Act went through the ordinary common land on which a number of people lived was not being utilised to the full, or, perhaps I should say it was being used at a very low husbandry standard, so we decided that if the owners felt like doing so it could be divided up by themselves and added to their farms.
I do not believe we would like to see any alteration in that regard but it just shows what is happening in other Departments which are setting headlines. The Department of Defence is not setting a headline in the way the Curragh is managed. Even in my short time in the constituency I have seen furze growing and spreading over quite an amount of land. It is quite a long time since I was first in the Curragh. It was when I was going to school but there was not nearly the amount of furze then, particularly on the hill near the Camp. That furze has spread over the land and eliminated that part of it for grazing. It shows what can happen when you let land go wild. There is a great growth of furze which pushes out grazing there.
I know we are getting money in regard to the claims but it is not being utilised to clear the land and leave it so that it can be grazed. It is a pity that the road through the Curragh is the main arterial road to the South. It carries a very large proportion of our tourists who see this wide open space which is farmed so badly. They see the furze growing abundantly on the section from the Camp and on towards Kildare. You have it in other parts as well at the firing range and over at the Athgarvan side. One of the golf courses there cleared part of this land and the good grazing there can be seen now. This shows what could be done if the land was properly cleared.
While I am on this subject I am reminded that there is a water scheme servicing the Curragh at present. The Minister could take a few taps off that to provide troughs in different parts of the Curragh for the animals. I am amazed that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have not approached the Department before now. We often have long periods of drought such as at present when there is frost and snow in the Curragh and there is no drinking water. There is need also for drinking water when the ewes and lambs come in April and May. It is well known that a ewe must drink roughly a gallon of water, whether from grass or drinking water, every day. I feel on humane grounds the Minister could seriously consider having some drinking water provided there for the animals.
Drinking water has been provided on humane grounds in most places. In the past even on fair greens there was always some place where animals could drink. There is grazing land for 6,212 sheep on the Curragh and something should be done to provide drinking water for them. There is not even a well or anything like that at present. Now that the main water supply is going through it, it would be quite a simple operation to provide drinking troughs for the sheep. There are several times when you have long periods of drought either in the winter or the summer and some provision should be made to provide drinking water for the sheep.
Deputy Sweetman last week mentioned that there was twice or three times the number of sheep being grazed on the Curragh at present but if he drove around the Curragh I would be surprised if he found even 6,000 sheep on it at the moment. The present time is traditionally low in numbers. It is from now on that the numbers are inclined to increase. This happens particularly from April and May onwards as the grass comes on. I should just like to deny what Deputy Sweetman said because I drove around the Curragh during the last week and from a rough estimate of the number on it I would say there is nothing like the number of sheep he mentioned.
I feel the Minister could consider increasing the number of claims and setting up a fund to buy claims from people who have them. There are too many of them and this has been a tradition over the years. It has been a tradition down through the years, with regard to those claim owners who keep sheep on the Curragh, that they set them out to other people and they in turn graze sheep on the Curragh. In such cases if people were interested in selling, the Department should have money there to buy them. I should also like to see some system of regulating the setting of those claims on the Curragh. It has been brought to my notice that there is discrimination regarding who can take claims and who cannot. I was talking to a couple of men during the last week who have claims there. We should consider people whose families for generations have been working with sheep and taking claims from the claim owners. A few years ago, they were told that under no circumstances would they be sold to them. I think this type of discrimination is bad. I feel that, in a Bill such as this, something should be included to stop the like of that and, if possible, that there would be a public auction of claims every year and let the highest bidder get the claim. It would be justified and people would be much happier. With regard to the giving of notice to the head bailiff about putting sheep on and taking them back, there might be a point in certain cases concerning people taking them out quicker in special circumstances. I feel that it would be well if the Department were not too strict about the three days' notice and it were possible, in an emergency, for people to say to the head bailiff: "We are taking them out now."
