I read the report to which the Deputy has referred and which he has now corrected. I am sure he has corrected what was obviously a misreport of his speech in Cork some time ago. As a matter of fact I gave some attention to the question of a board and I came to the conclusion that a board would not do the work as successfully as it is being done at the present time. I would be the first to approach the Government for approval for the establishment of such a board if that was the best way of getting ahead with forestry.
The present staff in the Forestry Division are doing a magnificent job of work and I think I should take this occasion to say that they are doing a job, the magnitude, labour and complexity of which, are not fully appreciated. A short time ago I gave a description of the amount of land that is being planted this year, 15,000 acres. If we reduce that to square miles it represents roughly 23½ square miles. Looking at it from another point of view, it means that this year the forestry inspectors, the foresters and the labourers employed—5,000 of them —are planting a strip of country a quarter of a mile wide and 96 miles long; that would extend from Dublin City right down across the Shannon to Loughrea in Galway. That is an immense undertaking and I do not think the work they are doing is fully appreciated.
I have examined the question of a board. Perhaps in 20 or 25 years' time it may be possible to have a board then to cope with the sales of timber, which will run into £1,000,000 or possibly more, annually. It may be possible then to put that into the hands of a board. At the moment a board would not be feasible. If we had such a board now we would be handing over to that board the acquisition of land on a huge scale. Now land is a burning question in this country and any Government which would delegate that particular part of its functions to a board would not last 24 hours in office. Bord na Móna has been put forward as an example. Bord na Móna merely acquires bog. In most cases the bog is not a source of profit to those who own it; it is more of a liability because it is a deathtrap for live stock.
The land we want for forestry is land which has a certain agricultural value, even though it may be a low one, and we would be encroaching on the livelihood of at least 800 farmers per annum in order to get our annual requirements of land for afforestation. That would be such a serious position that any Government which would delegate authority in that matter would scarcely be worthy of the name of Government. There would be no control.
I, as Minister, have to come in here now and answer questions dealing with the Land Commission. Sometimes Deputies abuse me or, through me, the Land Commission, because a certain farm is taken over; others abuse me because a farm is not taken over. My attitude is well known; this is a judicial function handed over to the Land Commission and the Land Commission does not acquire land for its own benefit or the benefit of the State; it acquires land to give it to those people who have not sufficient at the present time to make a living.
Were we to adopt the suggestion of a board we would be handing over to that board sweeping compulsory powers of acquisition. That board would not be responsible to the House. It would merely ask the House for a sum of money each year and the responsible Minister would be obliged to come in here to get that money and merely give an account of what was happening; he would have no control because in order that such a board could do its work, he would have to relinquish all control.
The forestry machine—that is, the acquisition of land, the planting of the nursery, the raising of something like 40,000,000 transplants every year to the third year of growth, ready for planting out, the fencing, the preparation and the ploughing of the ground—is an enormous machine and the work of the Forestry Division in that regard is not fully appreciated. Perhaps some of the fault for that lies with the Minister in that he does not publicise the work properly. Perhaps the fault lies elsewhere. Anyone who visits our forests will see that the Forestry Division has done and is doing a magnificent job. I fully appreciate that. I am sure other Ministers who went before me, such as Deputy Derrig, appreciate the work that is done. It is only in five or ten years hence, when the full benefit of what is being done now becomes apparent, that the work of the Forestry Division will be fully appreciated. They are doing a magnificent job and this Government will never hand over the acquisition of land to anybody but a responsible Minister; if he outsteps his duty then and his enthusiasm and if, in his enthusiasm, he interferes with the rights of the farmers, by taking over their land, he can be called to account here. That is the proper way to do it, and any suggestion that better work would be done by any body other than the present Forestry Division has no foundation in fact.
