asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he will state the number of acres of tillage destroyed by the Shannon scheme contractors on Thomas Flynn, Teirnascragh, Ballycrissane, Ballinasloe, County Galway, and the amount of compensation offered him as a result.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shannon Scheme and Tillage.
According to the information available to my valuers the damage done on the land was confined to part of one acre. Three poles only were erected on it, two of them near the boundary ditches. The amount offered as compensation was £1 in respect of poles and for damage to crops £3, a figure in strict accordance with the compensation generally accepted in similar cases.
On behalf of Deputy Killilea, who is ill, I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware that Flynn was offered 30s. when an estimate was being made. Later on he was offered £4. Is the Minister aware that this man's land, to the extent of eight acres, was so badly destroyed that he could not get any crop out of it; that in fact the Department of Agriculture which had given him special seeds to plant there, would not put up their usual placard because the field was so much damaged? Further, is the Minister aware that in this field in 1925 this man had seven acres tilled on which he made £73; in 1926 he also had seven acres of it tilled and he made £81, and out of the same field in 1927 he made £86, and in 1928 he made £90?
The poor farmers.
It is quite evident that this man is an industrious farmer. How it could be thought that he would be compensated by offering him a few pounds for the destruction of his field in this way, cannot be understood by Mr. Flynn or by Deputy Killilea apparently. I would ask the Minister to have the case reconsidered. Apparently some city fellow who was well able to drive a lorry but knew nothing about tillage, thought that he had freedom from the Electricity Supply Board to do what he liked when he had permission to enter the field. He destroyed the whole field by driving the lorry over it. He did not even follow the one track twice.