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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 12 Jun 2001

Vol. 537 No. 5

Written Answers. - Land Acquisition.

John McGuinness

Question:

252 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if, further to parliamentary Question No. 142 of 9 May 2001, regarding persons (details supplied) in County Kilkenny, he will consider introducing a scheme reducing the financial costs to family members in taking over such commitments; if new buy-out schemes will be considered in the future; the number of farmers involved or who owe outstanding amounts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17288/01]

At present I have no proposals for introducing a scheme on the lines suggested by the Deputy or a buy-out scheme like the one in 1993 whereby farmers could buy-out their annuities at a discount of 50% on the outstanding capital provided any arrears of repayments were also paid.

I am aware that some farmers may be experiencing difficulties in meeting their repayments and inspectors from my Department have been visiting farmers who have arrears of £2,000 and over with a view to assessing the reasons for non-payment. The persons named were visited in 1998 and having regard to the inspector's report, rescheduling of the land annuity could not be justified. Their annual annuity liability is £1,360 which is not considered to be unduly excessive.

At present 6,800 farmers have land annuity commitments amounting to £1.7 million annually and at the end of April as many as 4,900 of them had some arrears amounting to £4.3 million in total.

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