First prize a farm

Press, 30 June 1982, Page 21

First prize a farm

When farmer John O'Connor, from County Waterford, could not sell his 52-acre holding on the open market for half of the land's purchase price three years before, he put it up for raffle. And he cleaned tip. Now the police, who think O’Connor may have contravened Ireland’s Gaming and Lotteries Act, and the •revenue commissioners, are worried that the idea might ..catch on in the severely ■ ’'depressed market for land. " O’Connor had bought his farm for $lBB,OOO and bad to sell, because he could not meet the interest repayments, let alone any principal. With bank rates running at between 15 to 22 per cent, he. was going broke fast. So he put the farm up for sale by private treaty, and then by auction. His asking price: at first $150,000, dropping to $131,000. It soon became obvious that he would

be lucky to get $94,000. It was a crippling sum, worsened by three years payment of interest. So, he turned to the idea of a lottery, issuing 500 tickets at $370. The winning draw went to a 24-year-old fitter and seven of his workmates who now, according to a spokesman for the Irish Farmers Association, have “a $lBB,OOO headache.” The lottery is unique to Ireland: "We've never had it here before,” says an I.F.A. spokesman. He put-the disastrous slump in land prices down to a false boom when Ireland joined the E.E.C. in 1972. “Many farmers went out. of their Chinese minds and gave crazy prices for land,” he adds. “We reckon we have 6000 to 7000 of the bigger acreage farmers (100 acres and above) in a lot of

trouble.” Although the lottery system of sale is legally in a grey area, the I.F.A. has no plans to interfere. “Farming in Ireland is private enterprise,” the spokesman says. Meanwhile, the lottery system threatens to extend to other depressed industries. For instance, a Mayo fisherman, Michael McHugh, is issuing $lBB tickets for a 50foot trawler; a hotelier, Pat McCaffrey, is writing $282 tickets for the sale of his 12bedroom hotel overlooking plum Mayo seascape, Killala Bay, and hopes to collect $370,000. Blinded by the prospect of owning land, trawlers, and hotels, many ticket-buyers seem not to have considered what they will do with their acquisition if they draw the winning number.

From

SELWYN PARKER,

in Dublin