asked the Minister for Lands if he will state the amount of land in County Meath being made available by the Land Commission in the coming year (1) for use as additions to local uneconomic holdings, and (2) for allocation to local cottiers.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Meath Lands.
It is seldom possible to forecast the outcome of acquisition proceedings and consequently there is great difficulty in estimating the area of land likely to be available for distribution in a particular county in any one year.
It follows that any detailed estimate relating to particular classes of allottees would be purely conjectural and I would not be justified in attempting it.
Of course, the Minister has done it already in the case of migrants and I thought that for this County of Meath I would be able to get an estimate of the amount of land that might be available for locals.
Will the Minister be prepared to allocate 75 per cent., which he told us a few months ago has always been given to meet local applicants, when the land is divided in County Meath?
The Minister cannot guarantee anything. It is a matter for the commissioners.
I take it that so far as additions of land to uneconomic holdings are concerned, the practice that has been followed heretofore, that uneconomic holders who qualify within the Act will still obtain their additions, will be continued in the future.
I do not think there is any need for the Deputy to ask that question.
The Minister may not think there is any need, but I am putting the question because there are people who are of opinion that that practice may not be followed in future. Not alone do I want an answer to the question but I want to put the public mind at ease.
I cannot understand how any such rumour as that circulated. The practice has been and will be that local uneconomic holders will first be satisfied and, as Deputy Tully has just remarked, the practice has been in the past to do that to such an extent that over 80,000 acres of a total of 100,000 acres acquired since 1923 have gone to local congests.
That is correct.