asked the Minister for Lands the number of holdings in County Donegal in respect of which the annuity has been redeemed under the Land Purchase Acts at 31st March, 1970.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Donegal Holdings.
29.
The number of such redemptions effected since the commencement of land purchase cannot be supplied from existing records but in the period from 1st April, 1948, to 31st March, 1970, some 1,500 annuities were redeemed in full in County Donegal, by payment of the necessary capital sum.
A considerable number of annuities set up under the Land Acts of 1881-1889 and 1891-1896 have reached, or are approaching in terms of the effluxion of time, the date on which the original advance will have been fully repaid. In County Donegal, the number of annuities which have thus ceased by way of amortisation is 4,881.
(Cavan): Would the Minister consider that it might be uneconomic to continue collecting very small annuities of 1s and a few shillings over a long number of years and that it might be better to remit them altogether?
I agree that there is something in what the Deputy says. An effort was made in County Donegal to get people to redeem the total amount where the amount was relatively small. The response was not very good.