38. Mr. WILLIAM REDMONDasked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) if he will state the present position of the proposal to encourage forestry in Ireland?
§ Mr. T. W. RUSSELL(Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture, Ireland): Since 1909–10 an annual sum of £6,000 has been voted to the Department for the purchase and 2203 upkeep of woodlands and lands adapted for forestry comprised in estates which were being sold under the Land Acts. Nine areas, comprising 5,396 acres, are worked as forestry centres in connection with this Vote, which is now exhausted. An advance of £25,000 from the Development Commissioners has been sanctioned for the purchase by the Department of areas suitable for afforestation, subject to certain prescribed conditions. The money so advanced to the Department is given, not by Grant, but by a loan not repayable, and bearing no interest, for thirty years; the question of requiring interest and provision for repayment to be considered at the end of that period. Negotiations for the purchase out of this sum of 2,692 acres situate in the Ballyhoura Hills area, county Cork, 3,146 acres situate in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, Queen's County, and 2,158 acres situate at Glendalough, county Wicklow, have been concluded. An application for funds for planting and management is at present before the Development Commissioners. The Department are not yet aware of the precise terms on which the Commissioners will make advances for the planting and management of the areas purchased. Negotiations for the purchase of additional lands in the Slieve Bloom area, and also for lands in Aughrim district, county Wicklow, and Woodford district, county Galway, are proceeding. In cases where county councils are willing to acquire small woodlands under the Land Purchase Acts the Development Commissioners have stated that they will be prepared to consider applications for annual advances towards meeting the cost of maintenance and management of such woodlands. The woodlands must not be less than 50 acres in extent. The Department have directed the attention of couny councils to the matter, but they are not yet in a position to say how far the county councils will avail themselves of the Development Commissioners' offer. So far only one county council has taken definite steps to obtain an advance from the Development Commissioners. The operations at Avondale, county Wicklow, comprising a school of forestry are carried out by the Department out of its Endowment Fund.
Mr. WILLIAM REDMONDMight I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether we are to understand from his answer that, both as regards the Treasury Grant 2204 of £6,000 and the advance from the Development Commissioners, all the receipts from the working of these schemes go back to the Treasury?
§ Mr. RUSSELLYes, that is so.
Mr. WILLIAM REDMONDIf that is so, might I ask the right hon. Gentleman how the advance of the Development Commissioners is regarded as a loan without interest, and whether he could see that this money, which must accrue from the working, is given by the Treasury for the further development of this work?
§ Mr. RUSSELLI pointed out at once that this £25,000 from the Development Commissioners could not be regarded as a Grant, or be taken into account against Ireland as a Grant, but I have also put before the Treasury the expediency of giving receipts for forestry work in Ireland.
§ Mr. DELANYIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that some of this land in Queen's County is some of the best arable land in Queen's County, and that a claim has been put forward on the part of several small tenants and evicted tenants to some of it, and cannot that be done?
§ Mr. RUSSELLYes, we always do what we can in these matters. We have made no application for land at any time but that we have been at once met with a demand for a portion of it for the tenants.