CPO’s “Scrooge” land offers

OFFERS made by the National Roads Authority (NRA) to landowners under the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process are “a gross insult”, when compared with continuing farmland price increases, according to Fine Gael Agriculture Spokesperson Denis Naughten, TD.

He said road building overruns in time and cost are partly due to the Scrooge-like NRA offering inadequate compensation to land owners, and later making improved offers.

He said farmers were also hit by withdrawal of roll over relief, whereby any farmer seeking to replace CPO’d lands loses one fifth of his buying power. “Many farmers believe it is morally wrong for the Government to tax them for land that they are forced to sell, and Fine Gael has tried to get this unjust tax law overturned on a number of occasions”, said Deputy Naughten, after the Minister for Agriculture revealed in the Dáil that farmland prices increased almost 300% since 1993.