The vexed question of land division in Ireland is one that we will have to take a radical look at in the very near future. Constitutionally private ownership of land is sacrosanct. The private ownership of land is a new concept for Irish people in a sense, because 90 per cent of the people in Ireland were tenants of either absentee landlords or of very big landlords up to the time the State was founded. Then people were able to buy land on a long lease system, take over the absentee landlords' interest and pay back the Government through long leases.
Anybody who travels through Ireland at present will see that there is an under use of land. We hear at times about the prospects of finding oil off our coasts but we have within the country resources which would far exceed the potential of an offshore oil field. We do not use our resources to the best advantage for the individual or for the country. Travelling through the country, unfortunately we see many big estates which are not being used because the people who own them are too old to use them or they have run out of the means to use them. Then we pass on to a very small holding where a young active farmer is using the land to the maximum of his ability.
We have to restructure radically the use of land, and the only way we can do that is to transfer it on a long lease basis to younger, more active farmers. At the same time, we must give to the people who own the land a better living standard than they have at present. In many cases elderly people who are trying to hold on to large tracts of land are living in poverty. If that land could be used to the benefit of the country and to the benefit of the owner, the owner would have a better standard of living and the country would benefit from the proper use of that land.
To do this we will have to have a radical change in the structure of financing for farming. The system of financing for farming at present is totally inadequate. If you prove to the banks that you have enough money, they will give you enough money to stay in business. The EEC lower interest loans or interest subsidies which are available are given to development farmers within a certain bracket which does not allow the person who is trying to develop to get into the developmental stage. He is caught for capital. He cannot get working capital. He cannot get the type of capital he needs to develop his enterprise.
The Social Welfare Bill suggests that farmers' dole, as it is called, should be given to people if they can prove their income is below a certain level. Farmers' dole is a misnomer, because a person with a small number of acres who has a job on the side may be using the money he gets from the job on the side to develop his small holding. He uses what is called farmers' dole to try to develop his farm at the same time. Anybody who suggests we should do away with the small amount of money a small farmer gets from the social welfare system is living in cloud cuckoo land. Basically we are telling that person: "You have a small farm. Get out of it. We will not subsidise you any longer. We will not help you any longer. Get out of that small farm. Sell it and go and take a job in industry." In many cases the same people buy up the small farms. We do not have to go to the west of Ireland to see that. We have seen it in the east of Ireland. The bigger farmer gets bigger and the small farmer is eliminated. The subsidy a small farmer has been getting because of his inability to live off his farm should be maintained at all costs.
In a country which is supposed to be going through a financial crisis how can we maintain the number of Land Commission officers we have throughout the country who, in many cases, have not divided farms in the past two years, but who have gone to auctions at which these farms have been set on the 11-months system?