Sir, – Barry Keane (August 31st) appropriately drew attention to the historical experience of the Irish Land Commission and its possible relevance to the present day mortgage debt crisis (for landlords read banks and for tenants read mortgage holders ).
For the benefit of readers who may not be aware of the workings of the Land Commission I shall attempt to briefly outline its function.
Where tenant farmers wished to purchase their holdings (land and buildings), the landlord was obliged to sell at the price which was assessed by the Land Commission. Landlords were paid in land bonds (which were State guaranteed and freely traded).
The property was registered, in the name of the purchaser, subject to an annuity payable to the Land Commission. The debt was attached to the property and not to the registered owner, who was then free to sell the property subject to the annuity.
Subsequent sales involving sub-division or consolidation of holdings were subject to approval by the Land Commission.
Punitive rents were thus replaced by manageable annuities which were payable to the Land Commission in two half-yearly instalments. These instalments were significantly reduced, due to hardship in the early 1930s, by means of doubling the loan repayment period from 45 to 90 years. In 1989 I paid the final instalment due on land which had been bought out by my grandfather. Inflation had by then rendered the annuities comparatively easy to pay. Prospective buyers were always made aware if a property was liable for Land Commission annuities and these did not seem to be a significant deterrent to purchasers.
The Irish Land Commission was an independent statutory body staffed by civil servants. The three or four commissioners, who made decisions on valuations and appeals, had the status of judges and could only be removed by an overall majority of the Dáil. In latter years, when its sole remaining function was to collect remaining annuities which were still outstanding, The Land Commission was merged with the Department of Agriculture and Food before being eventually dissolved.
Let us hope that the 10-man body appointed by the Government to advise on the current crisis before the end of this month will give due consideration to the above, if they have not already done so. – Yours etc,