Yesterday, in reply to a remark made by Deputy Connolly, I quoted figures for Co. Meath, and these figures are significant. Similar figures might be quoted for many of the 26 Counties. As one travels by road from Dublin to Cork or from Dublin to Sligo one notices over whole districts, and for miles along the roadside, the number of large farms, generally of good land, that there are. I have returns before me supplied by the Department of Industry and Commerce, showing that the total number of agricultural holdings in the Saorstát is 369,000 odd. There are 254,000 holdings of from one to 30 acres. In other words, 64 per cent. of the holdings are under 30 acres. That 64 per cent. represents, roughly, 20 per cent. of the acreage. I notice that in the Saorstát there are 8,182 holdings of over 200 acres. That is to say, that 2 per cent. of the holders are in possession of 21 per cent. of the acreage. I wonder if Deputy Sheehy will say that is putting the people back on the land of their ancestors. The average holding would be 400 acres. I might deal with the matter county by county, but instead I shall just take a few counties. I find that in Connaught there are 4,218 holdings of one acre or less; 2,501 of from one acre to 2½ acres; 4,857 of from 5 to 10 acres; 13,487 of from 10 to 15 acres, and 37,489 of from 15 to 30 acres. Of course a lot of these might be termed economic holdings. I have not got their valuations. I have got the acreage only. Regarding the small holdings, there is another question to be considered, and it is that there are men through the country who hold five and six of these. These would really be large farmers, but as their holdings are reckoned separately they might come in under the term of small holdings. In Connaught there are 79,344 holdings under 30 acres with an average of 15 acres per holding. In Connaught there are 1,105 holdings of over 200 acres with an average of 564 acres. We have been accused here of telling a rather sorrowful tale of roads in Connaught, and indeed, one Deputy suggested the appointment of a Commission on boreens in Connaught. It is easy for men with 200 acres of land and over to talk of combining about employing labour. I agree that in certain cases the men themselves could do a lot of the repair, but there are cases in which they could not do it, where the land and turbary are so divided. The Commissioner, perhaps, not telling headquarters, may have promised that roads would be made, and they were not made. Let us take a few counties. In Meath there are 8,062 holdings of an average of 9½ acres, and above 200 acres, there are 631 holdings with an average of 371 acres, in other words, there are 631 holdings with 42.6 per cent. of the land. In Galway, there are 19,652 holdings under 30 acres, averaging 15 acres per holding. In Galway there are nearly 300,000 acres for 544 holdings, or an average of 532 acres.
Now, if the Parliamentary Secretary would make inquiries as to the area through Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Portumna to Eyrecourt, he will find out a great number of farms of 300 and 200 acres, while people are still hungering in the West for land, so there is room for expansion and the moving of migrants and the saving of the Gaeltacht. We will be told, when asking for land for the farmer's son, that there is no land available, while all that land is available. I would not advocate the reducing of all farms in Ireland to a dead level of 40 acres, but when you get cases where two per cent. of the holdings in this country have 21 per cent. of the acreage there is really room for improvement. I think nobody will deny that. In Mayo, 25,418 holdings are under 30 acres, and there are 375,439 acres in all, the average of each holding being 17.8 acres. In Mayo you have 234 holdings of over 200 acres; you have 189,311 acres of holdings on an average of 809 acres each. Surely there is congestion in Mayo, and there is a Gaeltacht in Mayo to be relieved.
In Leitrim there are 9,324 holdings under 30 acres. There are 150,000 acres approximately in holdings averaging 16 acres. There are 34 holdings of over 200 acres, with 19,482 acres in all, averaging 572 acres. I do not say that the Land Commission could have divided up all that land by now, but it is a problem that the Land Commission should look to, and we should get some indication of their policy on this from the Parliamentary Secretary. What is their policy in regard to this state of affairs, and when are the people going to be put back on the land?
Yesterday Deputy Wolfe referred to Kildare as a fairly good tillage county. Round about Athy is, as I have seen myself, a very good tillage area. But if Athy is a very good tillage area what must be said of the rest of the county considering the percentage of tillage there. It certainly must be ranch or something approaching to it. We have in Kildare 4,749 holdings of 30 acres or under, or an average of eight acres, or 9 per cent. of the agricultural land of that county. There are 443 holdings of 200, a total of 172,424 acres, or an average of 400 acres. Or, in other words, 443 holders have 42 per cent. of the agricultural land, and 4,749 holders have 9 per cent. of the agricultural land. And although the land around Athy is a good tillage area, I wonder what Deputy Wolfe has to say about the rest of it. Regarding the acreage tilled, it amounts to one-ninth or 40,980 acres tilled. In one section there is intensive tillage, if you like, but what would be the percentage of tillage for three-fourths of the county?
In County Wicklow, one-eighth of the land is tilled, Offaly, one-seventh; Leix, one-sixth; Carlow, one-fifth, approximately; and Louth, one-fourth. That does not speak very well for Kildare. That is a problem to which I would invite some indication of policy from the Parliamentary Secretary. When vesting is complete, and we hope it will be very soon, and when the Parliamentary Secretary is free for it, this is the next problem to tackle. I certainly say, and I am sure Deputy Sheehy would agree with me, that while you have 21 per cent. of the agricultural land held by 2 per cent. of holders, you have not undone the conquest or the evictions or the confiscation that have occurred in this country, or put the people of Ireland back on the land of their ancestors.