The IFA president Tim Cullinan has said that the IFA is completely opposed to any land grab by the State, whether that be through legislation or referenda to change constitutional property rights.

His comments come off the back of last week’s Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael draft document for Government, which states that parties would “through bold action” tackle land costs and “provide the stimuli for home-building in what will be, post-COVID-19, a much changed market”.

It says that in order to do this, a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government would “reduce the cost of land to improve the affordability of housing, employing all measures up to and including referenda.”

Completely opposed

Cullinan said that the IFA is completely opposed to any such land grab by the State whether that be through legislation or referenda to change constitutional property rights.

“I wrote to party leaders on 11 March before the talks, putting them on notice that such an approach was unfair and would be fought every step of the way by IFA,” Cullinan said.

On the property rights issue, Cullinan said that any future Government should avoid unnecessary conflict with property owners, including farmers, and address the current housing challenge by building on land already owned by the State.

"The reality is that there are almost 2,000 hectares of land under State ownership, which can be mobilised today to address the housing challenge. IFA will not allow the housing problem to be used as a trojan horse to diminish the property rights of farmers and property owners across the country,” he said.

Farmers deserve fair value for their lands and any attempt to pay less than the open market value for land and associated compensation will be strongly opposed by IFA.

“This was IFA’s position when National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and the Law Reform Commission both examined the issue in 2018 and it remains our position today,” he said.

Light on agriculture

Cullinan also said that overall, the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael document is very light on agriculture and gives no real commitments in relation to defending the CAP or trying to improve farm viability.

“Any programme for Government must contain a lot more commitments on farming” he said.

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