Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

It will be difficult to pin down the friend of the farmers in five years' time when somebody will have a real problem. It is against that background that Deputy Naughten is entirely correct to highlight this. This is a draconian measure. It is a heavy-handed measure to deal with a matter, which can be dealt with in a much easier fashion which is much more likely to reap rewards.

The Department may come across one of those farmers in deep financial trouble. When I was Minister of State at the then Department of Agriculture with responsibility for land for five years farmers were buying land at its most expensive. The value of the land, for which the Land Commission had to pay at the time, was so much higher than the income that one could possibly expect to get off land at the time. It is true that it would have been far better for many farmers if they had never seen Land Commission land at that time but that is not the way it worked out, and the Minister of State knows this better than I do.

That is the necklace which is hanging over a certain group of farmers, most of whom are in the good farming areas right across the country although this is hard to believe. Some 20 years ago they got into a situation and they found it terribly difficult to get out of it. In my dealings with it, it goes without saying that the Land Commission has been extremely considerate to most of the farmers I know.

I worry about this legislation for the reasons outlined. Naturally I see the reason this provision is being inserted and why someone would want to do so. It is an instance of overkill. It would be much easier to give many of the farmers who are in significant debt to the Land Commission the opportunity of being able to pay this over a number of years, provided that is mentioned somewhere in the legislation.

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