asked the Minister for Lands the acreage of unplanted forestry land held by his Department on 31st December, 1974.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unplanted Forestry Land.
35.
(Cavan): The area of unplanted forestry land held by the Forest and Wildlife Service of my Department at 31st December, 1974, was 97,404 acres.
Where the Department holds land does the Department hold land which is as yet unplanted and could still be used for the cutting of turf and where a genuine case could be made by local tenants, would be consider, particularly in the Connemara region, releasing that land for fuel purposes?
(Cavan): When a request for turbary is made to the Land Commission everything possible is done to make any land in their possession suitable for cutting turf available to those people on request.
Is the Minister aware of representations I made in the past about certain lands at Tawnaghbawn, Cashel, County Galway, where I requested that turbary be made available to local tenants? The Land Commission interviewed those tenants but then proceeded to prepare the lands for forestry purposes. This seems to go against what the Minister said in his earlier reply. I know it is unfair to mention a specific case, but would the Minister look into this?
(Cavan): I do not want to be smart, but the Land Commission would not be preparing land for forestry purposes. I may have knowledge of what the Deputy says in a general way, but if he puts down a specific question I will answer it.
In view of the fact that the Minister is fortunate enough to be in possession of almost 100,000 forestry acres, thanks to the previous Government, and in view of the present serious unemployment situation, would he not increase the plantable target for the present year in order to absorb some of the unemployed.
(Cavan): The Forestry Division are not tied to 25,000 acres or any specific amount. My urging to the section is to plant as much as they can in any given year.