Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 22 Feb 1962

Vol. 193 No. 4

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Planting of Meath and Kildare Lands.

89.

Mr. Crinion

asked the Minister for Lands what areas of land his Department has planted in the County Meath section of Kildare constituency, the acreage involved, the number of men employed, the amount of land he has acquired recently for planting, the amount of land he has acquired in respect of which the title remains to be cleared, the amount of land on which preliminary investigations are being carried out, the places and acreages of those investigations, when they will be developed, how many men will be employed on the development, and how many men it is anticipated will be employed with the Department when all this land is taken over.

90.

Mr. Crinion

asked the Minister for Lands what areas of land his Department has planted in County Kildare, the acreage involved, the number of men employed, the amount of land he has acquired recently for planting, the amount of land he has acquired in respect of which the title remains to be cleared, the amount of land on which preliminary investigations are being carried out, the places and acreages of those investigations, when they will be developed, and how many men it is anticipated will be employed with the Department when all this land is taken over.

91.

Mr. Crinion

asked the Minister for Lands what areas of land his Department has planted in the County Westmeath section of Kildare Constituency, the acreage involved, the number of men employed, the amount of land he has acquired recently for planting, the amount of land he has acquired in respect of which the title remains to be cleared, the amount of land on which preliminary investigations are being carried out, the places and acreages of those investigations, when they will be developed, and how many men it is anticipated will be employed with the Department when all this land is taken over.

Mr. Moran

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 89, 90 and 91 together.

Forestry statistics are not kept on a constituency basis and it would involve disproportionate expenditure of official time to extract information on the basis sought by the Deputy for the Meath and Westmeath areas.

In regard to County Kildare, the total acquired at County Kildare Forests up to the 31st March, 1961, was 6,037 acres, of which 5,176 acres had been planted by that date; there are 60 men currently employed.

From the 1st April, 1961, to date, 184 acres were acquired in the county. At present, possession is about to be taken of 5 areas totalling 81 acres in the county and there are 16 cases involving a total of 829 acres in which agreement has been reached on price and title is in course of investigation. Seventy-one cases with a total area of 2,100 acres are the subject of negotiations or are at various earlier stages of investigation.

It would not be possible to estimate when all or any of these areas might be acquired by my Department nor is there any basis on which an estimate could be made of the likely employment pattern consequent on these various acquisitions.

Mr. Crinion

Would it be possible for the Department, when developing these areas, to co-operate with Bord na Móna who lay off quite a number of men in the winter time? If the Department could do development work during the winter months, it would greatly relieve the unemployment that occurs in Timahoe and Ballivor.

Mr. Moran

I shall have the Deputy's suggestion considered by my Department.

Mr. Sweetman

Is the Minister aware that the Deputy's suggestion has been made every year by other Deputies and that the existing Deputies would be delighted with the assistance of the new broom?

Mr. Moran

Not in exactly the same form. Suggestions have been made here from time to time that Bord na Móna had property available for afforestation purposes which, on examination, turned out to be incorrect. The Deputy's suggestion is a different one.

Mr. Sweetman

Exactly the same.