asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food in view of the serious financial arrears affecting up to 900 Land Commission holdings, if he has any plans for dealing with this problem on a national basis; and whether he accepts that adjustment of rents and annuities may be necessary where the circumstances of the landholder's house deteriorated.
Written Answers. - Land Commission Holdings' Arrears.
135.
The general practice in dealing with annuity arrears due by landholders whose circumstances have deteriorated is to offer them an arrangement whereby they repay their arrears together with their current annuity payments over a number of years. Since the Land Commission charges no interest on arrears, this is a particularly generous concession and, in fact, 250 annuitants with arrears of over £1,000 each, are at present clearing off arrears of almost £1 million on a graduated basis under this type of arrangement.
Where, however, an annuitant fails to honour the terms of such an arrangement or where he ignores all correspondence and approaches, the Land Commission is left with no alternative but to issue a warrant for collection of the arrears to the county registrar for execution. Some 600 warrants to the value of £2 million were issued in 1987 and some £400,000 has been collected on foot of those warrants so far.
The arrears referred to are not new but have been growing for a number of years now under different administrations. While the arrears situation is kept under constant review to see what new measures, if any, may need to be taken, I would point out to the Deputy that any permanent downward adjustment in the amounts collectable would involve losses to the Exchequer which could only be made good by transferring the burden from the farmers who were allotted land to the general body of taxpayers. This could not be justified particularly in present circumstances.