Madam, - Now that the referendum and elections are over, I am writing to the various party leaders on behalf of ACRA concerning the unfinished business of legislation to rid our community of ground rent.
ACRA has campaigned on this issue since 1973. The legislation won in 1978 did not abolish existing ground rents; it simply prevented the creation of new ground rents. The Fianna Fáil election promise of 1977 to "abolish existing ground rents" has never been honoured.
In particular the evil of expired and expiring leases has never been tackled. This has produced a continuing drip of injustice, personal anxiety and loss for hundreds of householders still subjected by Irish Law to the feudal ground rent code. It is also a monument to the neglect by successive Governments of a vital and necessary element of legal reform. This neglect has been highlighted once again by the report of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, which was presented to the Government on April 7th. Will this report suffer the same fate as the Kenny Report on Building Land (March 1973)?
Ground rents, as many a householder to their cost well knows, can create expense and delay during conveyancing of residential property.
As the present Chief Justice, Mr Ronan Keane, said while still a judge of the High Court: "It is a truism that the sale of one ground rent in Dublin for £50 can cause more nightmares to lawyers than an office block worth millions of pounds". This was stated in his judgment delivered on May 2nd 1986 in the case of Irish Life Assurance Company Ltd and Dublin Land Securities Ltd.
The present Programme for Government has promised to abolish ground rent on dwelling houses. When will this promise be implemented? - Yours, etc.,
TONY O'TOOLE, Chairman - Ground Rent Sub-Committee, ACRA, Anne Devlin Park, Dublin 14.