Vol. 456 No. 7
65 Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on whether it is reasonable that it is taking up to three years to get replies to queries from the Land Commission in relation to title for land; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13027/95]
I regret the delays that people have experienced in obtaining replies to their queries from the Land Commission in relation to the title for land. These delays were unavoidable as a result of the redeployment of a significant number of the staff assigned to the land services division of my Department in 1993 to operate the arable aid general scheme. As the Deputy will be aware this work involves strict deadlines for the payment of very significant subsidies to farmers and therefore priority was given to this work for a temporary period. Consequently there have been some considerable delays in Land Commission work.
This situation, which I inherited, is most unsatisfactory and I have now arranged the deployment of extra staff to handle the arable aid general scheme. The training of the new staff will be completed shortly at which stage the work of land services division will again be dealt with in a satisfactory manner.
