Vol. 219 No. 5
asked the Minister for Finance if he is now in a position to say when the Agricultural Credit Corporation will be in a position to pay the £600,000 withheld because loans had not been taken up within three months; and whether a fresh application is considered necessary in such cases.
15.
asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of the difficulties experienced in trying to meet the three month clause by loan applicants for agricultural credit, he will now consider extending this period to six months.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 15 together.
I would refer the Deputy to the replies given by me to previous questions on this subject in which I explained that, in order to ensure that available capital is conserved for productive purposes, it was found necessary to discontinue the issue by the Agricultural Credit Corporation of loans for certain unproductive purposes and to cancel loan offers for such purposes where the offers had not been taken up within the time stipulated by the Corporation. Such offers must be regarded as dead and fresh applications would clearly serve no useful purpose as long as the present policy continues of restricting loans to productive purposes only. It is not possible to say when the Corporation will be in a position to resume the issue of loans of the kind at present discontinued.
The question of the length of the period during which a loan offer remains valid is, of course a matter for the Corporation. I would again refer the Deputy, however, to my earlier replies mentioned above, in which I explained that I had put the Corporation in funds to the extent of £1 million more than had been settled in the Capital Budget and that I foresaw no possibility of putting them further in funds for the purpose which the Deputy has in mind.
The White Paper on Public Capital Expenditure sets out the background to the restrictions on capital expenditure, including capital for agricultural and industrial credit, which the Government has been obliged to impose. The Deputy will observe from paragraph 20 of this document that, while the Government regard agricultural credit as warranting special consideration, the Corporation was asked to confine credit facilities to projects of a directly productive nature.
Is the Minister aware that members of his own Party are advising people turned down under the three month limit to apply again?
Members of my own Party are attacking me almost daily about it.
(Cavan): Would the Minister be prepared to consider sympathetically cases where it is established that real hardship is being experienced?
As I explained to the Deputy when he raised the matter previously, I have every sympathy with cases of hardship but unfortunately at present having regard to the scarcity of capital, I cannot ask the Agricultural Credit Corporation to change their policy in this respect.
(Cavan): Sympathy is not much use to people who are losing several hundred pounds which they have put on deposit. I strongly urge the Minister to reconsider cases where it is established to the satisfaction of the Corporation that hardship is being experienced through loss of deposits. Will the Minister reconsider cases where severe hardship has occurred?
If the Deputy has any individual cases, I can at least see them without any definite undertaking on my part.
We all have such cases.
