§ MR. HAYDEN (Roscommon, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if it is intended, in the forthcoming inquiry into the status and working of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, to include an inquiry with the view of establishing a bureau of forestry for Ireland, or of making other suitable arrangements, so that the subject of national afforestation may be taken up systematically on an adequate scale; and also that immediate steps may be at once taken to acquire suitable waste lands, which may be now available through the operation of the 1272 Land (Purchase) Acts, that they may be utilised subsequently for planting.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The inquiries which I am making into the working of the Department of Agriculture will not necessarily include the establishment of a bureau of forestry, but I am keenly alive to the great importance of that question. I am considering the institution forthwith of a separate inquiry into it, so as to see whether afforestation can be undertaken systematically, with a prospect of its being made remunerative.