asked the Taoiseach whether the Government have accepted the repercussions on the smallholder here implicit in the Rome Treaty provisions to the effect that the citizens of Germany, Italy, France and the other members of EEC will have the same property rights and the same right to acquire property in Ireland as Irish nationals.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Common Market: Property Rights in Ireland.
3.
As the Deputy is aware, I indicated, in my statement to the representatives of the Governments of the Member States of the European Economic Community on the 18th January, that the Government accepted the provisions of the Rome Treaty concerning the Right of Establishment and that we were prepared to remove the restrictions in this regard which at present exist in step with the other members of the Community. Article 54 of the Rome Treaty empowers the Council, on a proposal of the Commission, to issue a directive enabling a national of one Member State to acquire real property situated in the territory of another Member State, but this may be done only to the extent that certain principles laid down in Article 39, paragraph 2, of the Treaty for the working out of the common agricultural policy must not be infringed.
The Community have not yet decided how these provisions of the Treaty are to be operated in practice.
Is the Taoiseach aware that at a recent function in Tralee, the Minister for Lands stated quite clearly that in this new United States of Europe, while our people will have exactly the same rights as the citizens of the other European countries in regard to the purchase of property, these citizens of Germany, France and other European countries will have equal rights and opportunities here in regard to the purchase of property? In view of that statement, is there not an implication that the small farmer in Ireland——
The Deputy is making an argument, not asking a question.
It arises out of the Question, Sir.
The Deputy is making an argument.
Is it not fair to assume from that statement that the future of the small farmer in Ireland is in jeopardy, if he has to compete with the Europeans——
That is an argument.
——in the purchase of land?
The Deputy is incorrect, in any event. While it is perfectly true, as the Minister for Lands said, that one member of the Community will have the same rights and obligations as another, the extent to which the right to acquire property will be exercised in respect of agricultural land is limited in the Rome Treaty. In any event, no interpretation of it has yet been made, so far as I know.
But is it not a fact that, in connection with the purchase of property or land, the 25 per cent. tax on land to prevent foreigners from buying it on the same terms will have to be removed as a result of our joining the Common Market?
I do not know that that is so.
Is it not implied in the statement of the Minister for Lands that equal rights will be given to foreigners, too?
That is not so.
Is it not a fact that nobody minds the Minister for Lands any more since Claremorris?
Nobody minds what the Deputy has to say on any subject.