asked the Minister for Lands if he is aware that warrants have been issued for collection of land annuities where the annuitants have no receivable order made out to them, or where the Land Commission have failed to return the receivable order after the last payment, and where no intimation of six-day notice or otherwise has been given as to the amount due; and if he is prepared in such cases to have the full costs incurred by sheriffs' warrants refunded to those people.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Warrants for Land Annuities.
Receivable orders are issued by the Land Commission to all tenant purchasers. Six-day notices are issued in January and July of each year where payment of the then current gale has not been made on the dates the instalments fall due. The Land Commission have no authority to require under-sheriffs to forego the costs payable to them.
What I have asked, Sir, is rather another matter. It is with regard to receivable orders which have been returned to the Land Commission and where the Land Commission have not returned them to the payees, and where, notwithstanding that, the Land Commission have issued warrants to the county sheriffs. That is the case I am asking the Minister to look into. Does the Minister say that such things are not happening?
Mr. Boland
I say that it is not the practice. I say that it may happen in particular cases, but that it is not the practice.
I know perfectly well that it is not the usual procedure, but it is happening, and it is happening to a large extent. Will the Minister say that if a list of such cases is furnished to him he is prepared to see that those people are not penalised?
Mr. Boland
If such cases are furnished to me, I am prepared to have the cases inquired into, but I am not prepared to commit myself now by accepting the Deputy's statement that there are such cases.
asked the Minister for Lands if he is aware that annuity warrants are now being issued by the Irish Land Commission and sheriffs and county registrars are being advised to seize and distrain, where the amount outstanding is the June, 1936, instalment only; if he will state if this is the result of a general order to have warrants issued to all persons having any arrears whatsoever; and, if not, will he state what is the system of selection and discrimination.
Mr. Boland
Proceedings are now being taken by the Land Commission for recovery of unpaid instalments of purchase annuities which accrued due up to the 1st of June, 1936, inclusive. This is the normal practice of the Land Commission, and the question of selection and discrimination does not arise.
Does the Minister say that it is the normal practice of the Land Commission, say, for the last two or three years, to issue annuity warrants to the sheriffs and county registrars where there are only six months' arrears due? Is that usual? Does the Minister say that that is the usual procedure?
Mr. Boland
Yes, that is the usual procedure.
The Minister knows that it is not the usual procedure.
Mr. Boland
I say that it is the practice now. Is the Deputy trying to encourage people who are in arrears not to pay the arrears when they are due?
No. I am not suggesting any such thing. There is no use, however, in giving a general answer of that kind to my question. I know what the procedure is—I know it quite well—and I say that it has not been the practice to issue warrants where there are only six months' arrears due. Does the Land Commission intend to go on with that type of victimisation, and is it to be their practice that certain people should be selected against whom warrants are to be issued, even where there are only six months due, while other people, with two or three years of arrears, are to be left alone?
Mr. Boland
Certain people are not picked out, as the Deputy seems to suggest. There is no discrimination.
Does the Minister deny that those things are happening?
Mr. Boland
As I have already said, in reply to another question by the Deputy, if the Deputy can give me proof that these things are happening, I will have the matter inquired into, but I am certainly not going to accept his word that they are happening.