asked the Minister for Lands if he will formulate a farm policy on land purchase to provide purchase priority for local farmers, smaller farmers and those engaged in development or group projects.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Purchase Policy.
78.
The Land Commission are at present reviewing the structure of land policy in this country including the matters referred to by the Deputy with a view to formulating a programme suitable to our needs and harmonising with the developing agricultural structural reform programme of the EEC. Final determination of this programme must await the outcome of such consultations as may be necessary with the EEC in regard to the adoption of directives aimed at implementing their proposals for structural reform in agriculture.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that he could publish a contingency plan which would be helpful in guiding farmers in regard to what would be available to them in the EEC?
I do not think that publishing a contingency plan would be in our best interest, for the reasons I have stated.
I think it will be generally agreed that this is an extremely important question. Surely the form of the decisions that will be taken, partly in Ireland and partly at the Brussels level, will have a profound effect on how people assess whether we should join? This will be one of the central questions in making a decision. Therefore, the refusal to publish a contingency plan until a later stage is an effort to hide the real issues, to bamboozle people and to evade facing and discussing the true facts about a very significant and major national problem.
Deputy Keating is entitled to put his interpretation on this but I disagree with him that it is an effort to bamboozle people or to endeavour to misrepresent——
To hide.
That is the Deputy's opinion.
The Government are not giving any information.
This is the refusal of information on a central issue.
If the Deputy was aware of the activities of the Land Commission or the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries he would see that what is being done even at present is consistent with the whole programme of structural reform under the EEC.
Why is there this secrecy?
There is no secrecy. The Deputy should know about what is being done already.
Acting Chairman
I am calling Question No. 79.