Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 30 May 1930

Vol. 35 No. 3

In Committee on Finance. - Vote No. 30—Quit Rent Office.

Mr. Blythe

I move:—

Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £2,746 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, 1931, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an t-Saor-Chíosa.

That a sum not exceeding £2,746 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, 1931, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Quit Rent Office.

This particular office is really carrying on an expiring service. As land purchase proceeds the quit rents are being redeemed, and as they have to be redeemed under the Land Act the main work of the staff of the Quit Rent Office at present is dealing with the material that comes from the Land Commission to-day in connection with the redemption of quit rents.

Mr. MacEntee

The Minister has described this office as an office which is carrying on an expiring service and therefore an expiring department. Nevertheless, it is one of those extraordinary organisms which seem to grow greedier in their old age, because though the Department is dying and the service is expiring, nevertheless the cost of it is increasing. In the last year, 1929-30, it was £4,080. This year it is £4,146, so after all, apparently, the Department is not so near the solution as the Minister would suggest. The Minister stated that the principal purpose of this office was the redemption of quit rents. I would like to know if it does any other work. I am particularly interested in that connection, because on one occasion I had the hardihood, in order that I might be able to deal with the Estimate, to address a letter to the head of this Department asking him what this Department did, and he replied to me that he was not allowed to tell me. I wonder would the Minister be good enough to tell the Dáil what the Department does? Apart altogether from any function it may have in relation to quit rents, has it any other function? It might be well that the mysterious activities of the Department should be cleared up. Year after year it has appeared on the Estimates, and sums of money have been voted. I have been looking up the debates back to 1923 and have not been able to discover anything that would cast a light upon the activities of the Department. I think before the Dáil passes the Estimate we should have from the Minister some explanation as to the purpose for which this money has been spent.

Mr. Blythe

There is no work of any consequence except the work in connection with quit rents. First, there is a very small work of collecting the quit rents, which amount now only to £9,000 or £10,000 a year, and there is the work which comes from the Land Commission in connection with the extinction of the quit rents. I think they have some small duties in connection with foreshore rights, but the real work of the quit rent office is what may be called Land Commission work.

Mr. MacEntee

Does it do anything in connection with woods and forests? I understood the Minister to say that the total rents collected by this office were £9,000 or £10,000, and it cost £4,146 to collect them. I want the Minister to clear that up.

Mr. Blythe

No, the collection of quit rents was under the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, or some office of that name in Great Britain.

Mr. MacEntee

Does the office of the Commissioner of Woods and Forests any longer exist? The King's woods and the King's forests.

Mr. Blythe

The quit rents are supposed to be the King's rents.

Vote put and agreed to.