asked the Minister for Lands if any progress has been made by the Land Commission on the acquisition of the Molloy estate, Kinnitty, County Offaly since his reply to a question by Deputy Lalor on 23rd October, 1973.
Ceisteanna——Questions. Oral Answers. - Offaly Lands.
56.
(Cavan): As the Deputy is aware, the Land Commission have been unable to complete the purchase of these lands in respect of which agreement on price was reached in 1966. They have now decided to apply to the court for the appointment of an administrator ad litem with a view to the institution of proceedings for specific performance of the contract.
In view of the fact that over 12 months ago the Minister told me the Land Commission were considering going ahead by way of compulsory acquisition, may I ask him why the long delay before this action was taken? He will appreciate that my legal knowledge is not quite on a par with his own. Would he tell me what the reference to administrator ad litem means so that I can explain it to the constituents concerned?
(Cavan): The position is that in 1966 the Land Commission entered into a voluntary agreement with the vendor of this holding to purchase from him at a fixed price but the vendor did not co-operate in completing the sale to the Land Commission. He subsequently died and that left the Land Commission with a voluntary enforceable agreement against the owner which the owner did not implement. When he died they had to consider whether they would proceed by way of specific performance under the contract or whether they would proceed by their statutory compulsory powers. I understand they were advised that the proper procedure was to go ahead by ordinary specific performance proceedings as in a voluntary contractual sale. They had nobody to sue because the owner was dead and nobody raised representations to him. When the Deputy raised this matter with me previously I indicated to him, not that the Land Commission intended to proceed by way of compulsory powers under the Land Acts but that they intended to proceed for specific performance. They did take a number of steps; admittedly the steps did not proceed as quickly as the Deputy or, indeed, as I would have liked. However, as recently as August last counsel was asked to draft an application to the High Court, and I shall request that these proceedings go ahead with the utmost expedition.
The difficulty that still exists is to make them nominate an administrator.
(Cavan): Yes, exactly. There must be somebody to sue, and the court will nominate somebody whom the Land Commission may sue.
The object still is to acquire the land?
(Cavan): Yes.
57.
asked the Minister for Lands why £20 per acre is being charged in respect of the Willington and Hobbs estates, Shinrone, County Offaly; in view of the fact that they were acquired in December, 1966.
(Cavan): The determination of the price at which lands are resold by the Land Commission is a matter which is reserved exclusively, by law, to the lay commissioners, and is one in which I have no function.
I understand that the commissioners have carefully considered the prices at which the Willington and Hobbs estates have been resold and that they consider them to be reasonable.
The Deputy will appreciate that, when fixing resale prices, the Land Commission must have regard to current land values and must seek to achieve general uniformity within comparable areas of a county or group of counties. This will avoid extreme variations in resale annuities as between properties acquired comparatively cheaply some time ago and those recently purchased at a much higher cost.
Does the Minister convey, therefore that, in relation to this estate which the Land Commission have had for the last eight or nine years, they are entitled to make a profit on the purchase price? Am I right in thinking that the theory of the resale of Land Commission land is that the Land Commission pay a particular amount for land and that they resell it to the allottees technically at the price they have paid for it?
(Cavan): That is one of the matters the Land Commission will take into consideration in fixing the annuity, the price which they paid for the land. It would not necessarily be the only determining factor. They would also have to take into consideration the current market price of land at the time of allocation. I understand that the annuity in this case is based on a price considerably less than the current market value. In other words, the Land Commission try to be fair to everyone.
Does that not mean that, if the Land Commission were today to buy land adjacent to the Willington and Hobbs estates, which this year they have sold, as the Ministers says, at a comparatively cheap price, the converse would be the case, that if they paid a big price for the land now, they could reallocate it to congests at a loss?
(Cavan): No. What I am trying to say is that the Land Commission try to have uniformity in an area in respect of land allocated in a given year.
Is the Deputy not right? If you have uniformity or as near as you can get it, it means that you charge more for land that you acquire relatively cheaply, more than you would otherwise charge, but correspondingly you must charge less for land you acquire at a dearer price?
(Cavan): I understand there is machinery under the Land Acts for incurring some loss.