I move: That the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment 2:—
Section 7. After sub-section (6), a new sub-section inserted as follows:—
(7) Where a holding or part of a holding which is excluded from the operation of the Land Act, 1923, solely by reason of or on account of its potential or actual value as building ground is held by the tenant under a lease containing no provision enabling the landlord to resume possession of such land for building purposes, then notwithstanding the absence of such provision the landlord may at any time during the period of five years mentioned in the foregoing sub-section, or such extended period as the Judicial Commissioner may fix as aforesaid, resume the holding, or the part of the holding so excluded, for the purpose of building.
There was a period of six years during which a landowner might resume ground for building purposes. In the case of a lease, the period ran from the expiration of the lease. When the lease contained no provision for the resumption of land for building—for instance, it was a lease for 60 years—the landlord could not resume during that period for building. There was an amendment moved in the Seanad that this period of six years should run from the end of the lease; that at the end of a 60 years' lease the landlord should have the right for six years longer to resume the land for building ground, and that during the whole of the period the land should not be purchased. As a compromise, this amendment was passed. The amendment confers the right of resumption on the landlord, a right which he would not have in the ordinary way until the expiration of the lease. It enables him to resume in the next six years for building if he thinks it right to do so, and it puts the tenant in the position that at the end of the six years he will know where he stands. Unless the land is resumed within that period he will have the right to purchase.
