With the permission of the House I wish to share my time with my colleague, Deputy Hogan.
Adjournment Debate. - Land Purchase Buy-Out Scheme.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
I thank the Minister for coming into the House this evening to deal with this matter of extreme importance to farmers in rural Ireland. The buy-out purchase scheme was introduced by the Minister last year in response to severe difficulties being experienced by farmers on the matter of land purchase annuities. This is a welcome scheme. However, by demanding immediate payment by farmers of the purchase annuities the Minister is attempting to draw blood from a turnip — the Minister and his Department will be quite familiar with that vegetable. It is unreasonable to expect thousands of farmers, many of whom received notices in the last fortnight, to make payments to the Department of the order of £3,000 or £4,000 by 31 March, which was yesterday. Unless the deadline is extended for a period of perhaps a couple of months the buy-out scheme will amount to little more than a useless exercise.
In the interests of fair play and to ensure a reasonable take up of what is basically a sound scheme I ask that the deadline be extended. The Minister must be aware that farmers do not have ready access to cash. Indeed as most of them will have to apply to financial institutions for loans — it takes four to six weeks to process loan applications and we all know how anti-flaithiúlach financial institutions have been to farmers in recent times — it will be some time before they are able to make payment. If the Minister extends the deadline the scheme will be an even better one.
I thank Deputy Flanagan for allowing me share his time in respect of this important matter. I welcomed the initiative taken by the Minister in 1992 in introducing this important scheme which was designed to eliminate serious financial hardship experienced by a number of small farmers in respect of payments of annuities to the Land Commission. In operating the buy-out scheme the Minister should ensure that further financial difficulties are not created. He should understand that the deadline of 31 March, 1993, and the notice given in respect of the matter is not enough, particularly at this time of year, because of the seasonal nature of farm income receipts. The deadline is insufficient to ensure that the maximum number of applicants participate in this scheme. I do not wish us to have to come back to the House in a year or two to revamp a scheme that has the capacity to work effectively and to solve the problem. I appeal to the Minister to give more time for this matter to be resolved, by extending the deadline.
I thank Deputy Flanagan for raising this matter and also his colleague, Deputy Hogan, for his contribution. I acknowledge that both Deputies have supported this scheme which was introduced some months ago for the purpose of relieving the financial burden on many farmers.
I am happy to inform the Deputies that the deadline for exercising the option to buy-out land annuities at a discount of 50 per cent of the outstanding advance has been extended to 31 May 1993. This extension should allow ample time to all interested farmers to take up the buy-out offer. I am very pleased with the interest already expressed by farmers in the scheme and to date some 6,000 of the 13,500 potential participants have taken up the buy-out offer which is an indication of the attractiveness of the scheme and its acceptability to the farming community.
The overall land annuity package agreed by the Government last September is a very generous one. It involves benefits for some 42,500 annuitants and should resolve what has been for some time a growing problem and one which has considerable social implications. The package provides that with effect from 1 May 1993 all land annuities over 10 per cent are to be reduced to a common 10 per cent rate and repayment periods are to be rescheduled; all small land annuities with half-yearly instalments of less than £10 are to be written off; a buy-out discount of 50 per cent of the outstanding advance is offered to every annuity payer not in arrears.
The buy-out discount can be availed of by all annuity payers but those in arrears must pay any arrears in full no later than the date of their buy-out.
The scheme is a generous one and is recognised by farmers themselves as evidenced by the take-up already. The extension to the end of May will help farmers to make full use of the arrangement and to avail of the more favourable borrowing which is now developing. The overall package will resolve the land annuity problem once and for all. I have also had discussions with the major banks and have pressed on them the importance of assisting farmers in raising finance when necessary.
The Dáil adjourneed at 6.25 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 2 April 1993.