asked the Minister for Finance the arrangements which he has introduced or is planning to introduce to allow members of the public access to the records of the lands classified under the Farm Tax Act, 1986.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Public Access to Land Records.
2.
The records of the Farm Tax Office will be maintained under the care of the Office of the Commissioner of Valuation. Persons seeking access to the records can apply, in writing, to the Commissioner of Valuation who will consider their request having due regard to the confidentiality of the records relating to individual farm holdings.
Would the Minister consider making the records available in the Valuation Office because of their importance by way of information for land valuation and also to people such as auctioneers and others who would be interested in them? They are an invaluable source of information, well put together and scientifically carried out. To have them hidden away in the background would be very unfair to the public when there was such a large amount of public expense involved in getting even this far.
All the records of the farm tax office have been or will be handed over to the care of the Commissioner of Valuation. The Deputy will be aware that many of the records relate to individual farm holdings and farmers and so probably will never be released to the public as they are too confidential and personal. The only circumstances in which they might be released would be by way of the general information of researchers.
Would the Minister not agree that it is common practice to have the valuations available? They are still available and anybody can look at them in the county council offices, so why not in relation to this very important question?
I have said that, because of the confidentiality and personal nature of some of these files and records, they would not be available to the public.
(Limerick East): I take it the Minister has no objection to an individual land holder getting access to information about his holding? Obviously certain farmers would know the valuation already. But in the event of a change of ownership in the holding, could the Minister give a commitment that the owners of individual holdings will always have access to the valuation of such holdings?
I presume, under the appeals system, that they have access now to the information, because that is what they appealed against.
Would the Minister be in a position to let me know if in fact these records will be retained in the individual counties or does he intend having them all retained here in Dublin? Would the Minister agree that it would be advisable to at least retain those in each county at present since the staff are retained in these offices which have been closed down? This would at least provide some work for those officers to do. I put it to the Minister that many of these dedicated public officials are frustrated because they have no work whatsoever to do since the closing of these offices.
The Deputy is raising another aspect of this matter altogether.
The Commissioner of Valuation will be consulting the staff of the National Archives about the future disposition of the records in accordance with the provisions of the National Archives Act, 1986.
(Limerick East): Is the Minister now saying that under the Farm Tax Act, 1986, even though the tax due has been abolished by the Minister in the last 12 months, the appeal mechanism remains and somebody can get access to the information by invoking the appeal mechanism under the 1986 Act?
The records of the office must be retained until any residual matters arising from the administration of the Farm Tax Act are disposed of, that is, appeals to the tribunal on foot of the 1986 list, and when they are no longer required the procedure I have outlined to Deputy Enright will take place. There are still certain amounts of land tax due but there may be some argument that has to go through the appeals tribunal for that purpose and that is why the records will be retained.
We must make progress on other questions also.
What is the position in regard to the office in Nassau Street? Is it intended to close that down immediately?
That is a separate question.
Any accommodation not required will be closed down.