On the motion for the Adjournment, Senator Connaughton gave notice that he wished to raise the matter that section 40 notices are no longer referred to for the purposes of land acquisition.
Adjournment Matter. - Land Acquisition Notices.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
First of all, I want to apologise for the fact that the Seanad had to adjourn because I was not here. Senator Conroy and I had a type of understanding for 6 o'clock; if I caused any inconvenience I am sorry.
Through the Chair, no problem at all.
Secondly, I want to thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing this matter to be raised on the Adjournment. It is what I would regard as a very important subject. I also want to mention, at this stage, that Senator Andy O'Brien will use, with the permission of the Chair, part of my time, if that is in order.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
That is in order.
Thank you. The reason why this notice has been put down, in the first place, is the remarkable concern that is being felt all over Ireland, and particularly in the West, in relation to the acquisition programme of the Land Commission, or it is as well for me to be very blunt about it, their lack of a land acquisition programme. To my knowledge, particularly in the last six or seven weeks, you might as well say that the Land Commission have got themselves completely out of land acquisition, by virtue of the fact that the section 40 orders, which I will come to in a moment, are not being served as heretofore on the sellers of land. However, when I say that this part of the Land Commission's activities has come to a halt, I would point out, at this stage, that one would have to accept that land distribution, as opposed to acquisition, at the moment, is quite all right; I have no grievance there.
There is, certainly from my point of view, a remarkable change in policy as far as land acquisition is concerned. Is the Minister aware that the entire acquisition programme is halted?
To eliminate and alleviate all the tensions of small farmers, would the Minister tell the country what his proposals are, until such time as the new Land Act is implemented in both Houses of the Oireachtas? Is the Minister aware that all types of people are purchasing land the handy way, at the moment? Is he aware that land speculators of one type of another, professional persons of one type or another, beef farmers of one type or another, and, indeed, anybody who has an easier way of earning money than small farmers, are, at this moment, grabbing the land of Ireland? It is as well to point out, for people who might not have an interest in this particular aspect of the Land Commission's activity, that the normal procedure is that, when an estate is offered for public auction, subject to the normal pressures being applied by the local congests, a report is compiled by the local office of the Land Commission, forwarded to the acquisition section in Dublin, who in turn, after due deliberation on the subject, will or will not serve what we call a section 40 order. Basically, without getting into the legalities of it, what that means is that whoever purchases that estate has to be vetted by the Land Commission before he or she is entitled to become the registered owner. The present position is that there is tremendous pressure, particularly in the west, on behalf of small-holders, to get the Land Commission to serve the section 40 orders on the people who are selling their holdings, with a view to ensuring that, at least, outsiders will not be in a position to bid for the land.
There is no way we can stop bidding at a public auction, but we have now reached a situation where people with money to spend, and believe that land is a good investment, now know that the Land Commission is ineffective, that they can get away with it and can become the registered owners, thereby doing two terrible things at the one time. The first, most unsocial thing, is depriving people in the local area of making a living. The second, by virtue of the fact that they have an easier way of getting money, is making the land dearer. Without overrating the situation, there are certain sections of the community, the small farming community in the west, that are near revolt. I am talking about eligible small farmers; I am not talking about bachelors or people who are not able to use the land they have; I am talking about people who are married, who have children, who are working well the land they have, who have no other training but for agriculture and no way of getting a job anywhere else. Those are the people who are in competition with persons who have a better and easier way of making money—perhaps not easier, but they have a handier way of making much more money.
A situation has now developed where farmers are only wasting their time calling to any of the area offices of the Land Commission across the country and there is not much point in taking the case to the Land Commission in Dublin. For that reason I am extemely thankful to all concerned for being allowed to raise the issue this evening. The only person who has absolute authority, through the Government, is the Minister for Agriculture. He himself is not here this evening but is ably represented by the Minister of State, a neighbour of mine, who, I am quite sure, understands the position quite well. Unless there is some tightening up done now, there will be damage done that will never be undone.
The Minister is likely to say that we are awaiting the new Land Bill. As far as I and thousands of small farmers in Ireland are concerned that answer will not do. It is likely to be the end of 1979, or maybe 1980, before the Land Bill gets to the Dáil. By that time, thousands of acres will have changed hands. I appeal to the Government to be honest and to tell those small farmers exactly where they stand. The Land Commission may not be able to acquire land because of lack of money in the Exchequer. It would not be the first time that the Land Commission has suffered from lack of money; in my opinion down through the years it was always the sick baby. Land Commissions, in my opinion, never got enough money from any Government, which was one of the reasons for all the problems and the tremendous amount of criticism that has been levelled at them. It is fair to say that had they got a sufficient budget down the years they would have done remarkably better.
I want the Minister to speak directly to the small farmers and say "As far as the sales in your area are concerned, until the Land Act comes in, we will not intervene." On one hand, that would be bad news, but a lot of farmers who might be able to borrow the money might be able to buy the land themselves. My suggestion, at this stage, would be that the powers vested in the Land Commission through the Land Acts be maintained and that a section 40 order be served for every sale that is brought to the notice of the acquisition section in Dublin. The postal strike may be the reason given for the fact that the section 40 orders have not been served. That is not necessarily correct; there are area offices all around the country and it is quite possible to serve these orders. I understand the problems concerned; sometimes the sellers are outside the country but, by and large, if the commitment was there the section 40 orders could be served.
Once the area officers decide to recommend that a section 40 order be served, that section 40 order should be served. Once this became known it would automatically mean that a lot of people who now believe that they can jump through the loophole because of a limbo situation in the market place would realise that they would have to go through the Land Commission machinery before they could be registered. At the end of the day they might succeed but at least it will act as a brake. From a social and economic point of view, this must be stopped, or it will create an unhappy social situation, particularly in the small farming areas, even in two short years.
Land is extraordinarily dear; many people are selling land, for one reason or another. If we get another seven or eight months of the type of activity that is now being created, we will be left in a position where irrespective of what the Land Act has to say, the horse will certainly have left the stable.
If nothing is done, the price of land will keep on increasing because of the unfair competition. I understand that in the last week or fortnight there has been some clamp-down on loans by banks and lending agencies generally; nevertheless, while you have a man with the necessary money, who believes that there is a good future in land as a property no matter what the banks do, or the law, it will create an environment where those people will flourish.
There are thousands of farmers most anxious to hear what the Minister intends to do in the interim period between now and the Land Bill. I quite well understand that drafting the Land Bill is going to be a very prolonged business. I do not have to tell the House that at the best of times, anything to do with land is a very tough, onerous and thankless job. It is very hard to please everybody. There are always congests who believe they are entitled to land and do not get it, and so on.
What I am talking about now is an entirely different matter, more specific and, certainly, with a much shorter time schedule. If the position is to continue as I have seen it for the past two or three months, we will wind up in a position where a lot of small farmers will be saying that there is no future for them.
I take this opportunity of asking the Minister another important question, that is, the whole idea of the half-annuity system. Do I take it, in fact, that that only extends up to the first £3,000 in value of land given to congests, or can we take it that, through the EEC, land acquired and given to small congests will qualify for a full 50 per cent right across the board? There are other things that I would like to have said at this stage, but I would appeal to the Minister to give a very clear answer to my questions; all the small farmers of Ireland are waiting for the answers. With that, I will ask Senator O'Brien to make his contribution.
I am grateful to Senator Connaughton and to the House for affording me the opportunity of saying a few words on this problem which, as Senator Connaughton has said, is causing very grave concern in many parts of the country. I hope the Minister of State can say that it is wrong to believe that the present policy of the Land Commission is not to acquire any more land; that is firmly believed in various parts of the country. It would remove a lot of concern if the Minister could say that that, in fact, is not the policy.
It is widely believed in Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Longford and counties in my area that it is the policy and that, in fact, no land has been acquired by the Land Commission in those areas in recent months. I can give a few specific examples: In the parish of Lavey, quite convenient to me, a month or two ago a farm of 150 acres went on sale in the townlands of Feaugh, Lateever and Drumhilla. That land was bought by a speculator who came in from another county and who owns upward of 200 acres of land on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The position is that that is a congested area, and this farm of 150 acres of land, if it had been acquired at market value from the owner, would have made viable five, six or seven uneconomic holdings in that area. But it was not done and the opportunity has passed. Now resentment is very high in the area because a similar thing happened maybe six or seven years ago, in the same area, but more convenient to the village of Stradone. Now, this is a congested area of small farms between these large estates which are going on the market. The small farmers know these estates are their only hope of acquiring enough land to have a viable holding. Now these chances are slipping away and there is great resentment. In the last month or so, the self same thing happened in the townland of Shannow, not far from the village of Ballinagh; here we have case after case, month after month, of land becoming available that should be acquired by the Land Commission and divided among local people who are working farms that are barely economic; who are in a position to develop whatever land they would get and bring up their families in comfort and produce more wealth in the locality. We have come to the time when we will have to have a definite statement from the Minister, or somebody in authority, that the position whereby the Land Commission take no interest in these holdings with a view to making uneconomic holdings viable will not continue.
In addition, there is grave discontent with the length of time it takes the Land Commission to divide the farms that they have already acquired, in some cases five, six, seven or eight years. People cannot understand how it takes so long to do this; people who are hoping to get some of this land are not in a position to plan for the future and it is retarding development. As Senator Connaughton has said, I hope that we will hear something today that will remove the concern from the minds of the people.
The last point I want to make, with the limited time I have, is that, with the half annuity scheme that was operating in the western counties and was extended by Deputy Fitzpatrick when he was Minister for Land to cover Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Longford, these smallholders would have some hope of being able to acquire land by way of the Land Commission. If the Land Commission is not acquiring land and these people have to go on the open market to compete against speculators, there is not the slightest hope of their ever being able to acquire as much as a single acre.
First of all, it is not true to say that the serving of the section 40 notices has been suspended. In fact, 307 holdings, comprising 7,301 hectares, were the subject of section 40 notices in the year ending 31 March 1979. Included were 59 holdings, comprising 1,061 hectares, in County Galway. Section 40 notices were normally issued by registered post, so that recent postal difficulties caused disruption. As the Minister has stated on more than one occasion in Dáil Éireann proposals on future land policy will be coming before the Oireachtas in due course. In the meantime, the curren policies of the Land Commission will continue to operate, but priority must be given to the allotment of 28,000 hectares of letable lands already in the possession of the Land Commission, and to finalising the substantial area of land already in the pipeline of acquisition—20,400 hectares. This means that, for the moment at least, the initiation of acquisition proceedings can only be contemplated in exceptional circumstances. In assessing such circumstances, there would normally be strict interpretation of current policy requirements, that is the one mile distance and standard holdings of 40 to 45 adjusted acres. Each case would have to be judged on its merits, but obviously there would have to be a clear and definite need for extra land by full-time progressive farmers already using their existing lands to maximum capacity.
The authority of the Minister to issue or not issue a notice under section 40 of the Land Act, 1923, is set out in section 27 of the Land Act, 1965. I would like to say that the issuing of those section 40 notices does not necessarily mean that the Land Commission will automatically acquire that land, and in many cases I would say that only a very small proportion of the farms on which those section 40 notices have been served have been acquired. I have said on many occasions, and I am sure that Senator Connaughton and Senator O'Brien would agree, that the best way that we can help the small farmers with whom we are all so concerned is to get rid of the land pool that the Land Commission have on hands. I have in my opening statement given the acreage they have on hands. It is important that the Land Commission should be encouraged to divide that land as soon as possible and they can best help the small farmers by doing so. Very often the Land Commission cannot possibly compete on the open market with people who are buying land. Indeed, it is not always the case that speculators buy those farms. Very often the people who go out to buy the farms are farmers themselves who are adjoining those lands, who want them for additions to their holdings and so on; I do not think anybody could complain about that procedure. It is important that farmers, by way of loans or whatever facilities can be made available to them, should be encouraged to purchase farms where they can do so, and so help to enlarge their own holdings.
As regards the annuities, which Senator Connaughton also mentioned, the position here is that half the annuities are charged up to £3,000 of the purchase price and this is fixed by statute, so there is nothing that I or anybody else can do to change it.
The Seanad adjourned at 6.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 3 July 1979.