asked the Minister for Lands if he will take immediate steps to relieve all farmers from the payment of further land annuities, in view of the fact that, some years ago, the Government made a settlement, with the British Government, of all claims under the various Land Acts, including that of 1923.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Annuities.
This question is one that has been urged before now, namely, that the tenant purchasers whose annuities were in dispute with the British Government were by virtue of the financial agreement of 1938, entitled from that date to have their further liabilities related only to the charges necessary to repay the financial agreement loan of £10,000,000. There is nothing in the financial agreement or elsewhere to support that view and it has never been accepted by the Government, whose policy in regard to the liability of all annuitants was given effect in the Land Act, 1933, Section 12 of which fixed the amount of the revised annuities payable thenceforth.
The Deputy is, of course, wrong in his reference to the Land Act of 1923 as the financial agreement of 1938 had no connection whatever with annuities set up under that Act.