Seanad Éireann debate -
Friday, 3 Apr 1987

Vol. 115 No. 15

Adjournment Matter. - Assistant Farm Assessors Employment Termination.

Mr. McDonald

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. The speeches which have just been made are very hard to follow with such a serious matter as the political decision taken by the new Government to dismiss 132 young agricultural graduates from their employment as farm assessors with the farm assessment office, the Department of Finance and the Department of the Public Service.

An unprecedented procedure was adopted on this occasion. These 132 men with professional qualifications were just given a verbal instruction that their employment would be terminated in one week and this communication was issued some time after the news had been broadcast by RTE. These graduates had legal contracts of employment. Some of them had been working in the office since it was set up two years ago and they were told summarily that they were dismissed without regard to their contracts of employment or their prospects for alternative employment.

Have the Government any plans for the redeployment of these young graduates? As far as I am aware there are no employment prospects for these 132 young men nor are there prospects for the 80 people due to graduate this summer at a time when the farm development service prospects are on the wane as are prospects in all areas of agricultural development. These young professionals have just been told to go home and no account has been taken of how they are to survive. Even graduates with the full two years service do not qualify for redundancy payments or social welfare benefits. The Government's one week's notice failed to take into account any commitments these young people were obliged to enter into on leaving university. They were obliged to provide themselves with a car and with living accommodation. They needed a much longer notification of termination than the one week which they received.

It is now over 150 years since the Griffith valuation was carried out. the work the farm assessors office undertook over the past 20 months in assessing 1,033,852 acres and 629,979 adjusted acres up to 31 August last year was commented on favourably by the farm tax commissioners last October when he said he knew of no other professional arm of the State which would equal such production or would even approach it, as part of a communication he sent to the inspectors in charge of the 19 offices of the farm tax service. To date over 6,000 holdings have been assessed. Four hundred holdings per month were assessed and that is between 85,000 and 90,000 acres which adjusted down to roughly 50,000 acres per month. If the tax system was brought into operation it would yield an additional £50,000 per month in revenue. Of the 10 million acres to be assessed, 1.7 million acres have been assessed to date. Some time ago the IFA castigated the Department for assessing only 2,200 farms in their first year of operation. Looking at the first report of the farm assessor's office, this represents 1.2 million acres in all.

According to an OECD report, we must make greater use of professional and technical skills. This Government propose greater encouragement for horticulture and have appointed a Minister with special responsibility in that area. Should one not expect proposals from the new Government to redeploy the 132 graduates in order to further the Government's aims and proposals to emphasise this new development?

Farm classifications should continue regardless of the tax issue, because we do not know how many farms or holdings are in the country. A replacement of the Griffith valuation should be used to develop an equitable system of means testing for health contributions, higher educational grants, medical cards or farm grants. Many farmers are clearly getting an unjust deal under the out-dated Griffith valuation which was carried out in the 1830s. We need classification because it gives credence to the farm profiles being submitted for farm income tax and it should be used for health contributions and so on. I understand there are 19 regional offices and the budget allocated £1 million for the decentralisation of some of the services. That system could be used to assist in implementing that part of the Government's programme.

I understand that the net pay of these 132 assistant farm assessors amounts to a little over £900,000 per year and this should not be taken as representing a large imposition on the finances of the State. In view of the unprecedented nature of the breaking of these 132 contracts of employment, will the Minister give a commitment that discussions will be held with the Union of the Professional and Technical Civil Servants before these graduate civil servants are dismissed. I ask the Minister to undertake a review of this decision in the light of the necessity to update or replace the old Griffith valuation system.

This represents a very small problem to the country as a whole but it is a frightening prospect for the 132 young graduates and the class of approximately 80 who will graduate this year. The Government having laboured the problem of the scourge of emigration in the process of gaining power some weeks ago, are we now to officially see 132 young graduates plus the entire class of the coming year being forced to emigrate because there are no prospects of education in the agricultural sector either in the service sector serving agriculture or in the production sector. I ask the Minister to seriously consider in what way the skills and the expertise of this professional body of young people with much to contribute to the evolvement and the development of agriculture can be utilised. Is there any way in which their skills and their expertise can be used in the benefit and development of our agricultural industry? It is now acceptable procedure to let civil servants go at a week's verbal notice and will this be the order of the day in the future? I hope that this is not so and that the Government will find ways and means of reversing the present trend.

As a farmer I am rather shocked at the idea that ACOT and An Foras Talúntais appear to be under severe constraint to wind down their activities at a time when surely there is a need for the greater development of agricultural service. If I have any criticism of the Department of Agriculture it is that their main input at present into Irish agriculture would appear to be the extension of the disadvantaged areas and the securement of additional grants in that fashion towards agriculture. There must be room for improving the output of agriculture and trying to combat the necessity this country appears to have to import between £40 million and £50 million worth of potatoes and vegetables.

An Cathaoirleach

Senator Daly has four minutes. I was told Senator McDonald was going to divide his time with you.

Mr. Daly

I thank Senator McDonald for dividing his time with me. Up to this week the principal exports from this country were doctors and bullocks but now we are adding graduates to that export drive. I am not competent to talk about the farm tax or land tax but I am competent to talk about man's inhumanity to man when somebody is dismissed from a job by the State with a week's verbal notice given over Radio Éireann. If an employer in private enterprise wishes to dismiss somebody, under EC Regulations he has to give three months notice to the person. Why are State employers in the privileged position that they can turn off the tap and get rid of somebody at a week's notice and yet private enterprises have to give three months notice?

These young graduates had to have a motor car for their job. Their parents could not provide them with this tool of trade so they committed themselves to hire purchase agreements, to bank loans and various methods so that they could buy their cars. They now find they are left high and dry. This is not good enough. It is a brutal decision. I do not think any human being could make this decision — it must have been made by a robot. Are there more robots in the Department; how many more robots will be employed and how many more will dismiss people in employment in this country at a week's notice? I appeal to the Minister to do something and not put these people on the scrap heap or the export ship. Alternative employment should be provided for them. If they are not given a chance then there is no future in educating young people in this country because they will only be educated for export.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food (Mr. Kirk)

I refer the Senator to the announcement on farm taxation which was made by the Minister for Finance in the course of his Budget Statement on Tuesday. He said that it was the view of the Government that farmers should be taxed in the same manner as other sections of the community, that is on actual income. It had been decided, therefore, to discontinue the farm tax from 1987 onwards and legislation to this effect will be introduced shortly. He also said that farm tax liabilities due and unpaid in respect of 1986, which total approximately £5 million would be pursued by the local authorities and that there can be no question of an amnesty. In consequence of the abolition of farm tax, the farm classification office is being closed down.

The classification office had engaged a number of graduates in agriculture science to assist the permanent inspectorate in the classification of agricultural land, that is to determine the adjusted acreage of agricultural holding by reference to the criteria set out in the Farm Tax Act, 1985. The total number of officials involved — known as assistant farm assessors — is 130. They were employed on a temporary basis. The contract of service which was signed by each assessor clearly provides that the appointment is to a temporary unestablished non-pensionable position and that the appointment may be terminated at any time by either side in accordance with the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973. For the people concerned this means one week's notice. A notice of termination of employment on this basis will be issued within the next few days.

While I regret very much that this decision has to be taken, I think Senators will appreciate that the Government have no choice in this matter. It is a logical consequence of the decision to close down the farm classification office. Once the farm tax goes there is obviously no point in continuing with the classification of land and, as soon as a number of transition problems have been resolved, all other activities associated with the farm classification office will cease.

I want to deal briefly with a couple of points Senator McDonald made. He said these people were being dismissed by word of mouth. The people involved will get letters notifying them of the termination of their employment in accordance with the terms of the contract. This notification will issue at the beginning of next week. The point that the farm classification office should be seen as a replacement for the Griffith evaluation is reasonable but the farm classification was designed for farm tax purposes only. Given the state of the public finances the Government could not justify retaining the classification office purely to provide a substitute for Griffith evaluation.

On the question of more unemployment the Government are concerned about the problem. Senators will agree that the thrust of the budget last Tuesday was to get control on public spending and to create the conditions and economic environment which will promote the area of industrial development thereby creating much needed jobs. I fully appreciate the commitment and dedication displayed by these officials in the course of their work but I must point out that there is no question of a breach of faith with them. The decision taken by the Government is unavoidable and the assessors were fully aware from the beginning that their employment was temporary and subject to termination at short notice.

The Seanad adjourned at 12.45 a.m. on Saturday, 4 April 1987sine die.