asked the Minister for Lands if he will state the number of applications received from small farmers and landless men for the lands at Murphy's farm, Finchogue, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, and the names of the successful applicants.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Allocation of Wexford Lands.
There were 63 applicants for land on this estate. Of the area of 116 acres comprised in the estate, 40½ acres have been allotted to four local smallholders, ten acres to an employee and one and a half acres to the county council as a building site. The balance of the estate (64 acres) has not yet been allotted.
I asked for the names of the successful applicants but the Minister did not give them.
No, and I do not intend to give them, not because I have an objection to giving them to the Deputy but because it has not been the practice in the House. I think Deputies will recognise that it should not be done.
Can the Minister indicate when the residual portion of the farm will be divided?
I am not in a position to answer that question at the moment but I will communicate with the Deputy.
Is the Minister aware that one of these people is an urban dweller and has no land at all? The other is an old age pensioner with a wife but no family. There are young farmers being left without any land. There are some in the area with only six acres and I can give proof of that. If that is the way the Land Commission works the sooner it is scrapped the better.
The point is that it is the holding of land which is the object of improvement and not the person who occupies it. If there is an uneconomic holding in the vicinity of the land that is being divided, whether it is occupied by an old age pensioner or a bachelor of 60, which is frequently the case, the commissioners have, I think, a legal obligation to provide additional land for these people. We shall have to change the policy if we want to exclude all except young married men with families.
I think the Minister is wrongly informed by the Land Commission. One of the applicants, whom I know well, is a young man living nearer the land that is being divided. He has only five acres while the successful applicant has 70 acres, and is an old age pensioner into the bargain. Is that true?
The Deputy has not given me the names. If he puts down a question I will get an answer for him.
But the Minister said names should not be given.
One of the names is James Rigby.