I move:
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £2,756 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1927, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an tSaor-Chíosa.
That a sum not exceeding £2,756 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1927, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Quit Rent Office.
This is the first time that this particular Estimate has been brought before the Dáil. The cause of this was that for a considerable time the ownership or the title to the Quit Rents was in dispute with the British Government. At first the contention was put up that the Quit Rents were the personal revenue of the King, and that the King, at the beginning of each reign, surrendered the Quit Rents to the Government of the day in consideration of the money voted to him by Parliament in the Civil List, and that they were so surrendered in consideration of the sum to be paid by the British Government, and that therefore the rent should accrue to that Government. After a good deal of legal discussion and of examination as to what has been done in other Dominions in regard to similar matters, it was acknowledged by the British Government that the Saorstát was entitled to receive the Quit Rents. In the year ending the 31st March, 1925, the last day for which I have the figures here, the total amount collected under this head was £11,635. There is some question at present as to how exactly the Quit Rents ought to be disposed of, and how the expense ought to be met. An examination is going on, and it may be necessary to introduce legislation to deal with the question of Quit Rents and of their disposal. Meantime they are being paid into a Woods and Forests Fund which is the Saorstát equivalent of the British Woods and Forests Fund. Up to the present, and since the year ended the 31st March, 1923, the salaries and expenses of the Quit Rents Office have been paid out of that fund. The position was that we collected the money, and it was passed to that fund. As the British were not receiving the sums they ceased, after the year ending the 31st March, 1923, to pay the expenses of the office. The whole question, which is somewhat complicated legally, is still under consideration.