asked the Minister for Lands how many people have qualified for a pension by giving up their farm or farms to the Land Commission; and what pensions they have received.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pensions on Farm Surrender.
38.
Whilst the applications received have not as yet sufficiently advanced to enable life annuities to be set up, I may say that, at a recent date, a total of 168 applications were either under examination or at the vital price-negotiation stage. Some 70 further applications were received: a few of these were subsequently withdrawn; in the majority, however, the lands offered were on investigation, found to be unsuitable for land settlement purposes.
As the scheme is entirely voluntary, there can be no question of compelling potential vendors to accept the Land Commission offer for their lands or to opt for a life annuity in lieu of all or part of the purchase price. Once price is agreed and a qualified applicant opts for participation in the scheme, however, the setting up of the appropriate life annuity and the necessary arrangements in relation to the other benefits attaching to the scheme can proceed quickly.
(Cavan): Does the Parliamentary Secretary not realise that most of these applicants are elderly people and, if the Land Commission proceeds at its normal pace of doing business, they will all be dead long before the Land Commission sanctions the annuities in their cases?
As I explained, once the price is agreed and a qualified applicant opts to participate in the scheme, the necessary arrangements relating to the benefits attaching to the scheme proceed.
(Cavan): Is it not true that some 165 applications have come in under the Act and not a solitary one has yet been finalised?
The Deputy is aware the regulations in relation to this particular scheme have been brought into operation only comparatively recently.
(Cavan): The Deputy has a shrewd suspicion that all the ballyhoo about the Land Act of 1965 and the benefits it would confirm is all nonsense. It has not been implemented or operated.
It was just a device to get land.