Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2004
187 Mr. Stanton asked the Taoiseach the amount and percentage of farm land that has been lost to farming in 2000, 2001 and 2002 due to forestry, road developments and industrial as well as building developments and all such other developments [5406/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe exact information requested by the Deputy is not available. The CSO compiles statistics on the agricultural area utilised on farms over one hectare, from its annual June agricultural survey. This comprises the area under crops, horticulture, silage, hay, pasture and rough grazing in use including fallow and set-aside land.
The total agricultural area utilised was 4,443,200 hectares in the June 2000 census of agriculture. The corresponding estimate for June 2001 was 4,410,100 hectares and, for June 2002, 4,372,000 hectares.
