I move: "That the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment 12."
New section. Before Section 18 a new section inserted as follows:—
"18. Whenever the lands proposed in a drainage scheme to be drained or improved include any bog land from which turf is at the preparation of such scheme being or capable of being obtained or from which turf will as a result of the execution of such scheme be capable of being obtained the following provisions shall apply, that is to say:
(a) for the purposes of any statement contained in the scheme of the value of such bog land or of any increase of such value, the value of such bog land shall be taken exclusive of and subject to any rights (in this section referred to as turbary rights) of cutting and removing turf from such bog land whether generally or for a particular purpose and whether in virtue of ownership of such bog land or of ownership of other lands or otherwise;
(b) the value of the several turbary rights over or in respect of such bog land shall be stated in the scheme and the increase in such value expected to arise from the carrying out of the scheme shall also be so stated;
(c) the like notices shall be served on all persons having turbary rights over or in respect of such bog land as are by this Act required to be served on occupiers of lands proposed in the scheme to be drained or improved and every person having such turbary rights shall have the like rights of making objections to and of expressing assent to or dissent from the scheme as are conferred on such occupiers by virtue of this Act;
(d) for the purpose of determining whether the number of dissents from the scheme is or is not sufficient to prevent the confirmation of the scheme, but for no other purpose, turbary rights shall be deemed to be lands proposed in the scheme to be drained or improved and to be in the occupation of the persons entitled thereto.
(e) the report to be made under this Act to the county council or joint committee charged with the carrying out of the scheme as to the amounts by which the respective annual values of lands have been increased by the carrying out of the scheme shall not include in such amounts any benefit to the owners of turbary rights in respect of such rights but shall contain particulars of the manner in and extent to which such owners have been benefited in respect of such turbary rights by the carrying out of the scheme and shall also contain recommendations as to the contributions (in this section referred to as the turbary assessments) towards the cost of the carrying out of the scheme and the maintenance of the drainage works constructed pursuant thereto to be assessed on such owners in respect of such benefit;
(f) no person shall be assessed to a drainage rate in respect of a turbary right;
(g) the county council or joint committee charged under this Act with the carrying out of a drainage scheme shall, when fixing the drainage assessments in respect of such scheme, also fix the turbary assessments to be assessed on and paid by the respective owners of turbary rights benefited in respect of such rights by the carrying out of the scheme and shall fix such assessments in all respects as appears to them to be just and equitable having regard to the manner in and extent to which such owners are so benefited by the carrying out of the scheme and in particular may fix any such assessment as a lump sum payable in one instalment or in two or more instalments over a period of months or years or as an annual or a half-yearly sum of fixed or variable amount payable over a number of years:
(h) the certificate of such county council or joint committee certifying the respective amounts by which the respective annual values of lands have been increased by the carrying out of the scheme shall also certify the amounts of the several turbary assessments and the time and manner of payment thereof by the respective owners of turbary rights, and such assessment shall be payable by such owners to such county council or joint committee accordingly and shall be collected and recovered in the like manner and by the like persons and means in all respects as the drainage rate is collectable and recoverable and, for the purposes of such recovery, every turbary assessment shall be deemed to be assessed and leviable on all land which is in the occupation of the owner of the turbary rights to which the assessment relates and is either the land on which such rights are exercisable or the land to which such rights are appendant or appurtenant.
(i) where a scheme has been carried out by a joint committee, every turbary assessment in respect thereof shall be collected by the county council in whose county is situate the land over which the turbary rights to which the turbary assessment relates are exercisable and every such turbary assessment when collected by such county council shall be paid to such joint committee.
(j) all moneys received on foot of turbary assessments in respect of a drainage scheme by the county council or joint committee charged under this Act with the carrying out of such scheme shall be applied by such county council or joint committee in reduction of the moneys to be raised by such council or for such committee by means of the drainage rate and shall be so applied either towards repayment of the expenses incurred in carrying out the scheme or towards the maintenance of the drainage works executed in pursuance of the scheme or partly in the one way and partly in the other way as such council or committee shall think fit and shall be so applied at the discretion of such council either as and when received or by accumulating and resorting to the accumulations or partly in the one way and partly in the other way."
This amendment proposes to deal with the matter raised here by Deputy Brennan on the Fifth Stage of this Bill before it left this House—that is, the position of turbary owners. The position with regard to the rights of turbary owners up to the present is that they have not been leviable in any way for improvements that have affected them beneficially in their capacity as owners of turbary rights. The owners of the bog land over which these turbary rights exist were made responsible for the drainage rates. Now this amendment provides that where drainage is carried out and where the value of the turbary rights are improved as a result of the drainage, those who have their rights improved should pay a suitable proportion of the cost of the carrying out of the work and a suitable proportion of the drainage maintenance cost. It takes cognisance of the fact that, while the land can be permanently improved by drainage the increase in the value of the turbary rights as the result of the drainage is not permanent. It throws a certain amount of additional turf free for collection by the owner; and that is used, all that is collected in a certain limited number of years. The amendment that is before us here proposes that a parallel system will be set up for turbary right owners in the same way as a system is set up through the Bill for ordinary landowners. They will have the same rights of objecting to the carrying out of the scheme based on the value of their turbary rights that the owner of the land will have, so that without their voices being raised they cannot have a drainage rate thrown on them. They will therefore get a like notice and will be able to make the same appeal that the occupiers of the land can make before a scheme can be carried out. When the scheme is carried out and a report made by the land valuer shall show separately the extent to which the land has been improved and the extent to which there is an increase in the turbary right values created, so that the cost of the scheme may be allocated in reasonable proportions on the land that has been improved and on the turbary rights that have been improved. It makes provision that the amount of money that is set aside and the cost of the scheme and the cost of maintenance against turbary rights shall not be included in the drainage rates; that there shall be a drainage assessment as a result of which a drainage rate is struck, based on the improvement of the land, and there shall be a turbary assessment based on the improvement that has been brought about in turbary rights. It makes provision that the turbary right owners can be assessed in respect of the turbary assessment by the amount, payable monthly or two-monthly or annually or six-monthly for a definite period of time, the period of time being based on the extent of time that it appears likely that the increased value will have been collected by the turbary right owners.
So that as far as possible the amount of money that will be paid in respect of drainage maintenance and the cost of carrying out the work will be paid by the owner of the turbary rights for that period that he is directly benefiting by the increased value of the turbary that is made available to him; and the amendment under section (3) opens an arrangement whereby the county council can use that money in whatever way it seems best to themselves in paying off the cost of the scheme and reducing the cost of the drainage rate in general.