asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state the number of landowners who were prosecuted during the emergency period for failure to comply with the compulsory tillage regulations and the approximate acreage of arable land owned by those concerned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tillage Regulations Prosecutions.
The total number of prosecutions for failure to comply with the tillage regulations in respect of the years 1940 to 1948, inclusive, was 2,074, and, in addition, powers to enter and undertake tillage were exercised in 697 cases.
Precise information as to the area of arable land held by those occupiers who were prosecuted is not available without inquiry, more time-consuming than the information sought would justify.
Will the Minister endeavour to persuade his colleague that it would be good public policy to carry out the suggestion which he announced when introducing his Estimate, namely, that such lands as are not worked by the owners should be acquired and divided for the relief of congestion?
I think what I said was that such lands as are perennially set bespeaks the re-emergence of a new tribe of landlords which I know my colleague, the Minister for Lands, is resolved not to permit.
Are you sure of it?
Certain. Plumb certain. He was born in Mayo.