John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of the discounted buy-out scheme is to facilitate the termination of ongoing annuity payments. Annuitants have had a year in which to organise or arrange finance from their financial institutions and check that the title of the land subject to any annuity is in order. The longer the scheme is open, the more adjustments will be required to figures and the half-year gale days go by.

The purpose of the scheme is to encourage annuitants to avail of the scheme within a reasonable period of time and bring the ongoing collection of annuities to an end. Accepting the Deputy's amendment would lead to serious administrative difficulties and will unnecessarily prolong the administration of the scheme at a significant additional cost to the Department in time and resources. This was widely debated on Committee Stage. The Minister and her officials heard all of the arguments and considered the matter during the summer months. They decided to stay with the original decision. Therefore, we oppose this amendment.

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