This Supplementary Estimate is necessary to meet estimated excesses on two sub-heads of the Vote, viz.: Sub-head F. (Solicitors Branch—Incidental Expenses), £17,000 and Sub-head I (Improvement of Estates, etc.), £40,000; and estimated deficiency in Appropriation-in-Aid of £16,000; and expenditure under a new sub-head for payment of fees to under-sheriffs and county registrars under Section 28 of the Land Act, 1933, to the amount of £24,000; a gross total of £97,000 against which are set-off anticipated savings on other sub-heads amounting to £40,000, leaving the net amount required, £57,000.
The anticipated excess of £17,000 under sub-head F.—"Solicitors Branch —Incidental Expenses"—is due (a) to the payment to State solicitors of costs (amounting to £11,000) which were incurred by defaulters and which were funded under the provisions of the Land Act, 1933, and (b) to the payment of the special costs incurred in proceedings commenced after the 1st October, 1932, which, by Section 23 of the 1933 Act, were not to be funded and repaid in that manner by defaulters but were to be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas as part of the expenses of the Land Commission.
The anticipated excess of £40,000 on sub-head I (Improvement of Estates) is due to the increased amount of work undertaken in connection with the Government's desire to proceed as rapidly as possible with the division of untenanted land. The monthly expenditure during the current year on roads, fences, drains, dwelling-houses and out-offices has been well above the average of recent years and much very valuable work has been done.
The original Estimate for expenditure on improvement works was £180,000 and it was expected that this sum would be exceeded by £43,000. However, the expenditure on the purchase of tenancy interests on Congested Districts Board estates for which a sum of £9,000 is provided in the same sub-head will be £3,000 less than the estimate which will reduce the excess of £43,000 spent on works to a net excess of £40,000 on the sub-head.
The anticipated deficiency of £16,000 in the amount of Appropriations-in-Aid of the Vote is due mainly to the operation of the Land Act, 1933. The receipts from costs normally recoverable from annuity defaulters, originally estimated at £3,000 and which have been funded under the Act, will be short by £2,200. The sum of £1,000 from annuities recoverable out of lands purchased out of the late C.D. Board's funds (known as Clare Island Annuities) which have now been revised and converted into Purchase Annuities (Section 4 (2) of the Land Act, 1931) will cease to be an item of Appropriations-in-Aid and will account for £1,000 of the deficiency. "Excess Annuities" (mainly for repayment of improvement advances) are reduced by 50 or 55 per cent. involving a decreased receipt of £6,300; and the instalments of additional sums payable under Section 51 of the Land Act, 1931, will also be similarly reduced under the Land Act, 1933, in consequence of which the receipts to be appropriated will be diminished by £8,700. It is also anticipated that there will be a deficiency of £750 in respect of the item for repayment of the late C.D. Board's loans (estimated to realise £990). Setting off an anticipated increase of £2,950 in miscellaneous receipts, the net diminution in Appropriations-in-Aid is estimated at £16,000.
The Estimate of £24,000 for the new sub-head is to provide for payment to county registrars and under-sheriffs of the lodgment fees payable to them in respect of warrants to be issued by the Land Commission under Section 28 of the Land Act, 1933, for the recovery of unpaid instalments of Land Purchase Annuities, &c. A proportion of this amount will, in due course, be repaid and appropriated in aid of the Land Commission Vote, i.e., when the under-sheriff or county registrar has collected the debt and costs, but no such recoupments are likely to come to hand in the current financial year.
The gross amount required in respect of the four sub-heads before-mentioned totals to £97,000 but anticipated savings under other sub-heads totalling to £40,000 are set off against it, reducing the amount of the Supplementary Estimate to the net figure of £57,000.
The anticipated savings are spread over various sub-heads, the principal items being: £9,000 on sub-head A (Salaries) due to vacancies caused by deaths and retirements, to a fall in the cost-of-living bonus for a portion of the year, and also to the operation of the Public Services (Temporary Economies) Act, 1933: £3,000 on sub-head B (Travelling Expenses, etc.), due mainly to vacancies, etc., and the amount of travelling being somewhat less than anticipated. There is also an anticipated saving of £3,000 on sub-head K (Payments under Sections 42 and 46 of the Land Act, 1927) due to arrears of annuities in certain land bank cases being funded under the Land Act of 1933, instead of being charged to this sub-head. As regards sub-head N (Advances in respect of Additional Sums payable by Purchasers under Section 28 (3) of the Land Act, 1923) and sub-head P (Advances to provide for the Maintenance of Embankments or other Works), the expenditure is always difficult to forecast with any degree of accuracy and a saving on each of these sub-heads of £1,500 on the amount provided in the original estimate is anticipated.
During the earlier portion of the year it was necessary to present two Supplementary Estimates for large amounts:—(a) sub-head S, £800,000, and (b) sub-head T, £1,420,000, in order (a) to meet deficiencies in the Land Bond Fund due to the funding of annuities, etc., payable under the Land Acts, 1923-31, for the first gale of 1933 and to the revision of these annuities for the second gale of 1933, and so to enable the fund to pay the half-year's interest on the Land Bonds payable on the 1st July, 1933, and on the 1st January, 1934, and (b) to relieve the Guarantee Fund of the charge which would otherwise have fallen on it in consequence of the funding of the annuities payable under the Land Acts, 1891-1909, for the first gale of 1933.
As it was impossible to estimate the exact amount of the deficiency in either case, the Supplementary Estimates were for bulk amounts, and it is expected that there will be a saving of £5,000 on the first Supplementary (sub-head S, £800,000) and £17,000 on the second Supplementary (sub-head T, £1,420,000).
It will be seen that both excesses and saving can, for the most part, be ascribed to the operations of the Land Act, 1933, which was passed on the 13th October last, and for which provision could not, of course, be made when the Estimates for the year 1933-34 were being prepared.
