Many speakers on this side of the House asked the Minister if he could give us a time-scale in regard to the introduction of the Bill to dissolve the Land Commission. However, in his reply to Second Stage he did not answer that question. We have been co-operative but we would like reciprocation by way of information as to when the Bill will be introduced because it is the nub of the issue.
We were told that land purchased by the Land Commission from individuals was paid for in land bonds. Unfortunately, the people repaying money to the Land Commission — or to the Department of Agriculture and Food acting on behalf of the Land Commission — have to pay for it in hard cash and this is what is causing the difficulty. The Minister dismissed the view expressed not just from this side of the House but from the Government side that there is a necessity for setting up a land authority, to introduce a land policy and to have a land use division in the Department of Agriculture and Food on the demise of the Land Commission. It is not sufficient for the Minister to say that our agricultural land policy is dictated by the Common Agricultural Policy because that policy is coming a part at the seams. We need something in place to decide how the land should be used, how much should be used for growing cereal, producing beef and milk and — the biggest and most vexed question of all — how much will be used in future for afforestation. Will afforestation account for major land use? If so, to what extent?
There is a glaring contradiction, which was not alluded to by the Minister during the debate, which pinpoints what I am saying. At present we are still getting considerable grants from the State and the EC to reclaim mediocre or marginal land while, at the same time, the EC is proposing that people in this country and throughout the EC should be paid considerable sums of money not to farm the best of land — they call it "set aside". That specific example illustrates the contradictions and the necessity for a land authority, land policy and a land use division in the Department of Agriculture and Food. We do not know where we are going; the Common Agricultural Policy is in its death throes. We are in a major transitional period at present which will probably last for several years and yet we are refusing to admit in this House that changes are taking place. The Minister of State should convey to the Minister — who should have been here for this debate because it is of immense importance — that the Members of Dáil Éireann expect a policy on land use and on agriculture because we can no longer depend on the Common Agricultural Policy which is disintegrating before our eyes.
