Just wanted to say thanks. This has got me sorted until I can sort a better long term solution.

For the record in case it helps others, I did an ln -s /usr/share/perl5/Debconf /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.14.2/ which has allowed system package management to work with APT and perl to coexist. I'll try and rearrange some of the other bits as well in future so this isn't needed, as well as look at perlbrew.