asked the Minister for Lands (a) the areas designated as congested areas prior to the Land Act, 1965, (b) the number of ministerial orders made under section 4 of the Land Act, 1965, (c) the areas designated as congested areas since 1965 and (d) the number of local surveys carried out and reports submitted to him by Land Commission inspectors.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers (Resumed). - Designation of Congested Areas.
82.
The nine Congested Districts Countries as defined by Section 46 (1) of the Irish Land Act, 1909, were:— Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, the six rural districts of Ballyvaughan, Ennistymon, Kilrush, Scarriff, Tulla and Killadysert in Co. Clare and the four rural districts of Bantry, Castletown, Schull and Skibbereen in County Cork. Section 4, in conjunction with the Second Schedule, of the Land Act, 1965, defines the congested areas for the purposes of that Act—and the Second Schedule is, in fact, a recital of the list of the counties and rural districts given in the 1909 Act.
Section 4 of the Land Act, 1965, also contains the necessary provision for the making of orders by the Minister for Lands declaring areas, additional to the scheduled congested districts, to be congested areas. To-date no such orders have been made declaring additional areas under section 4—and no specific surveys have been carried out with a view to the making of any orders. My predecessors have followed the line—and I agree with them—that priority should be afforded to the traditional congested areas where congestion has for so long been so pronounced and it would as yet be premature to declare additional areas under section 4 of the 1965 Act.