Vol. 241 No. 7
I move:
That it is expedient to authorise such charges on and payments out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof as are necessary to give effect to any Act of the present session to amend the Land Bond Act, 1934, to provide for the alteration of existing land bonds to unnumbered units of one pound, and to provide for other matters connected with the matters aforesaid.
Unfortunately, when the Bill was discussed last week I was unable to attend and I should now like to comment on the resolution. Over the years I have made my opinion on land bonds quite plain. Everybody knows that land bonds are out of favour in this country and that many people have suffered heavily as a result of this system being introduced for the payment of land acquired, often by compulsion, from holders of one kind or another and in a number of cases from smallholders. We know that within the past four or five years land has been bought under this system and that the land bonds then issued have now depreciated in value by 25 per cent. The present price of 6 per cent land bonds is in or around 75. Certainly it is less than 80 per cent. It means that land bonds worth £1,000 paid a few years ago to a smallholder for his farm are now worth approximately £750 or £770.
I highlighted the position as far as land bonds were concerned in a particular case which was discussed over a period in this House. My view is that such people should be compensated, that they are entitled to comensation, that they are people of slender means and that people who were paid in land bonds within the past number of years have lost heavily. Every one of us has had representations from such people, many of whom did not understand that the bonds were likely to depreciate in value. Indeed a sizeable number would not have understood what the system entailed at all. They were told: "We are buying your land for £1,000 and we will give you bonds equivalent to £1,000." The next thing they knew was that the bonds had fallen from 95 to 90 to 85 and to 80 and now they are less than 80. Even 7½ per cent land bonds are selling at or around 90 so what is the position of the 4½ per cent or previous issues? The whole system should be changed and a person from whom land is acquired, whether by consent or by compulsory methods, is entitled to justice. When people were given land bonds they were not told that their value was likely to depreciate in the not too distant future and as a result people have suffered. In south-west Cork those concerned are not people of affluence but people who had no other source of income except that from the holdings which they agreed to sell in some cases while in other cases they were acquired by the Land Commission.
I did not hear the Minister's statement on Second Stage and it was not possible today to get it here in the House and, therefore, I do not know whether the system is going to continue and we are going to force people to sell land and then pay them in land bonds. I understood that there was a changed outlook and I was glad to hear it and to hear that in future the Land Commission would pay in cash for land. It may be some time before we have another opportunity of discussing land bonds and on this occasion I should like to hear the Minister's views, to know whether it is proposed to compensate people who have suffered heavily through depreciation, whether it is envisaged that the regulations would be changed in order to avoid this position and that where land is acquired the people will get some assurance that their bonds will not depreciate. Otherwise this system should be scrapped. It is unfair that a public Department should deal this way with a section of our people.
I should point out that all we are discussing is the Money Resolution for money needed under this Bill.
I know that.
I thought we were on Committee Stage but obviously we are having a discussion on the Money Resolution. What I have to say would be more relevant on section 1 and it would expedite the passage of the Bill as I know we are anxious to expedite the business of the House.
