Vol. 436 No. 4
187 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason the Land Commission did not allocate commonage lands to a person (details supplied) in County Galway which are adjacent to his farm and utilised by him previously; if he will have this matter reconsidered; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Land Commission provides legal and technical assistance to the shareholders in privately-owned commonages to partition their commonage where this can be shown to improve the agricultural potential of their holdings. The shareholders in this commonage, all of whom are registered as owning their shares, or who have shown conclusively that they are entitled to be so registered, requested such assistance. They agreed to the scheme of division which is now in place on the ground. Effectively this scheme is an agreement between the shareholders as to how they will hold land they already own. The person referred to in the Deputy's question is not a shareholder in the commonage and the Land Commission did not have the authority of the other shareholders to include him in the scheme. If he wishes to obtain a portion of the divided commonage it is up to him to negotiate the purchase of such a portion from the owners of the commonage.
