DEAR EDITOR,

Michael (Mick) Brennan who died recently, aged 87, will be remembered in the Law Library, if not by younger farmers, for the constitutional case – Brennan and Others versus the attorney general and Wexford County Council.

This overturned the use of the Poor Law Valuation (PLV) as a method of taxing and assessing farmer incomes.

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All land was valued in the 1840s and 1850s. However, 140 years later, no revision had been made to take account of arterial drainage, artificial fertilisers or lime which had transformed formally poor land (low PLV) into top class land.

Yet by the 1970s, PLV was used to assess farmers for rates, health contributions, and secondary education grants. The Government was also about to add a resource tax and liability for income tax.

Mick farmed 64ac with high valuation. In 1978 his rates bill was £420, more than doubling in two years to £870 in 1980, £13.50/ac.

The agricultural wage at that time was £10 per week. If the case had not been won, his rates bill in 1983 would have been £1,350. In contrast, a 327ac farm in Wexford on low valuation land, but much improved and highly productive, paid £145 in rates.

Things were getting out of hand, and Mick and his neighbour Rory Brown, who was also badly affected, decided something had to be done. They conducted research, helped by Professor John Lee of the Agricultural Institute.

They sought opinion from Rory O’ Hanlon, senior counsel on the constitutionality of PLV. He advised a good case could be made. Wexford IFA formed a committee to raise funds, with 3,500 farmers from all over the country contributing.

Summons were then served on the attorney general and Wexford County Council by five Wexford farmers – Michael Brennan, Nick Fitzhenry, Bernard Devereaux, Derry Clancy and Rory Brown. The case was won in the High Court, and the government’s appeal to the to the Supreme Court was defeated.

This ended an extremely divisive and unfair method of taxation which would have put many farmers with high-valued land on the road. This case would never have been taken, much less won, without Mick’s steadfast determination, loyalty, integrity, and intelligence.

Mick is survived by daughter Carmel, sons John and Jay and his 10 grandchildren.

A job well done – rest in peace Mick.

RB