The Gazette 1981

27 / 298

INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND
GAZETTE
Vol. 75, No. 2
In this issue . . .
Comment ^7
by John Fahy
The Solicitor's Apprentice:
by Jacinta Morris
The Law School —
Concentrating the Mind 35
Law Society Annual Conference 38
by Nicola Barr
Correspondence
For Your Diary
Executive Editor: Mary Buckley
Editorial Board: Charles R. M. Meredith, Chairman
John F. Buckley
William Earley
Michael V. O'Mahony
Maxwell Sweeney
Advertising: Liam Ó hOisin, Telephone 305236
The views expressed in this publication, save where other
wise indicated, are the views of the contributors and
not necessarily the views of the Council of the Society.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
March 1981
Comment. . .
In December 1980 the Government issued its long-
awaited White Paper setting out its proposed Land
Policy. "Comment" was in course of drafting, when the
Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute Seminar on the
subject was held towards the end of February. At that
Seminar the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry, Mr.
Paddy Power, was quoted as saying that the Govern-
ment was "mildly surprised at the almost total lack of
reaction, to date, to the White Paper". "Comment" was
about to express similar surprise, but in somewhat less
mild terms.
The first point that must be emphasised is that a
coherent and workable Land Policy is not only essential
to the nation, but long overdue. The Inter-Departmental
Committee on Land Structure Reform and the Govern-
ment itself are to be congratulated on the time and trouble
already taken in investigating the inherent problems —
social, historical and financial — which prevent this
country from becoming the agricultural success it
undoubtedly could be. But it is plain from the White
Paper that the conclusions of the Committee and of the
Government by no means coincide. The Committee
recommends the replacement of the Land Commission by
a new land agency, responsible for the promotion of the
efficient use of land for agricultural development; the
Government White Paper proposes to retain the Land
Commission. The Committee recommends that the use of
Land Bonds as a payment medium for lands purchased or
acquired for structural reform purposes should be discon-
tinued and payment made in cash; the Government does
not regard this as an acceptable alternative to the "Land
Bond" system. On these, and many other matters, the
thinking of both the Committee and the Government is
readily understandable and the difficulties all too plain.
The White Paper is worth studying for its statistics
alone. From them, a greater appreciation is possible of
the scale of the present problem, of the extent to which
traditional Land Commission practice has failed to
achieve any significant structural improvement in agri-
culture, and of the wholly disappointing response by the
intended section of the farming community to the
Farmers' Retirement Scheme.
Government proposals for future land policy include
financial measures intended to restrict the purchase of
agricultural land by persons other than "full-time farmers
(and . . . farmers' sons and daughters and landless
persons working full-time in farming or who have received
approved agricultural training) . . ."; the provision of
grant or loan assistance towards land purchase by a
"progressive farmer-purchaser" with an existing holding
O Continued on page 30
27