Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 9 Mar 1933

Vol. 46 No. 5

Public Business. - Vote No. 75—Advance to Guarantee Fund.

Minister for Finance (Mr. MacEntee)

I move:

Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £1,616,000 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh Márta, 1933, chun Roimhíoc leis an gCiste Urraíochta.

That a sum not exceeding £1,616,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st March, 1933, for an Advance to the Guarantee Fund.

The introduction of this Estimate is in pursuance of the undertaking given by the President last November. It will be remembered that the Government then decided to grant a moratorium in respect of the land annuities falling due on the gales November-December, 1932 and May-June of the present year. A moratorium was granted to all who were unable to meet their obligations and the arrears accruing in consequence thereof were to be funded over a period at 4½ per cent. interest. If, consequent upon this concession, the law were to be allowed to operate normally, the local authorities would suffer by the hypothecation to the Guarantee Fund of the local taxation grants. Therefore, when announcing the concession the President stated that, in due course, there would be released from the Guarantee Fund the amount of grants absorbed in it as the result of the moratorium. Apart altogether from the special grant of £250,000, which was announced in the last Budget and provided by Statute in the current year, and which has already been distributed in full, the total amount of the agricultural grant due to local authorities was £1,948,022.

Of this sum £524,000 has already been issued from the local taxation account and a further £5,000,000, was issued from the Emergency Fund, thus leaving due to the local authorities about £924,000. The Vote now before the House provides for an advance to the Guarantee Fund and will enable the Department of Finance to repay the £500,000 already advanced under the Emergency Fund and a further sum of £191,178 which was advanced from the Central Fund to the Guarantee Fund. It will also permit us to issue to the local authorities a sum of £924,022. This Estimate has to be read and to be taken in conjunction with the Land (Purchase Annuities Fund) Bill which has been read a second time and which will be taken again on Tuesday next in this House. They are complementary measures but this at any rate is an essential step in the process which will enable us to release the balance of the local taxation grants to the local authorities and we hope will put, as far as Government assistance can, the finances of these bodies in a sound position.

Mr. Morrissey

I should like to know if the Minister is prepared to give any information to the House regarding the reduction of something between £400,000 and £500,000 in the agricultural grant for the ensuing year. Will the Minister explain why when the Government made this House, through the President, a very definite promise that 50 per cent. of the annuities were to be remitted, no mention was made of the fact that roughly one-fourth of the amount paid last year for the relief of local rates was going to be deducted by the Government this year?

Mr. Fitzgerald

The Minister spoke about a special grant of £250,000 made in the last Budget. I do not know what was meant by the word "special." In the year 1931 we gave a grant of £750,000 and there was nothing special about it. It was merely a re-orientation of our finances. There was nothing special about this grant unless something supervened during the year to make it a special grant. I do not know whether it was intended merely as a little gift to the people to pacify them from one election to another, but I think there should be some explanation as to why there is to be a reduction this year, as far as one can see, from £2,200,000 to £1,750,000, a drop of some £450,000.

Mr. MacEntee

The Deputy who was formerly Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Deputy who was formerly a member of the Executive Council know very well that a supplementary estimate as a general rule relates only to the year in which it is taken and that it would be quite out of order to discuss on it a provision which is being made for next year. I, as one of the most orderly Deputies in the House, could not transgress the rules of order so far as Deputy Morrissey and Deputy Fitzgerald have invited me. I do not think it would be in order to say anything at this stage of our proposals for the coming year.

Mr. Morrissey

The Minister is very wise at any rate.

Mr. MacEntee

This year will stand by itself. I do not know if there is any very great substance in the point which Deputy Fitzgerald has raised as to whether this was a special grant or not. It was a special grant.

Mr. Fitzgerald

It was not announced as such.

Mr. MacEntee

It was £250,000 more than the Cumann na nGaedheal Government saw fit to devote to the relief of agriculture during the prosperous years in which they were in office.

Mr. Morrissey

On the point of relevancy, may I put this to the Minister. In his opening statement he said he wanted this Estimate taken in conjunction with the Land (Purchase Annuities Fund) Bill. I think that disposes of his statement that it would be out of order to deal with the matter now. On the other point, might I put it to the Minister that before the present Government came into office there were two sums, one of £1,200,000, and another of £750,000 or £1,950,000 in all, made available for the relief of agricultural rates. The present Government is now proposing to reduce that amount.

Mr. Fitzgerald

With regard to the £250,000 which the Minister said was an additional grant, the present Government announced that its policy was complete de-rating. Last year he added £250,000 to the sum given for relief of agricultural rates, and the whole tenor of the statements coming from the Government side was that inasmuch as Cumann na nGaedheal had prepared the Estimates, it was impossible for them immediately on coming into office to go to the full extent of their promises. They said that the £250,000 was just a token of their earnestness. The Minister now turns round and says that far from its being a small instalment of better things to follow it was really something special. Instead of its merely being a part payment of what they promised the people, it now appears that it was merely given to hide from the people the fact that they were going to give nothing at all.

Vote put and agreed to.