I move:—That the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) (No. 2) Bill, 1935, be now read a Second Time. Last December the Minister outlined to the Dáil the provisions of a temporary Bill dealing with the agricultural grant for the financial year then current. It is now necessary to make provision for this year's grant, and the purpose of this Bill is to fix the amount of the grant for the present year, to allocate it between the local authorities entitled to participate in it and to provide for its application to the relief of rates.
The total amount of the grant this year will be £1,870,000. The actual provision to be made now in order to bring the grant to that figure is £370,000, the sum mentioned in Section 4 of the Bill. This, when added to the £900,989, the amount of the supplementary grants already included in the Estimates and the original grant of £599,011 charged on the Central Fund, makes the full total for the year. The total is £100,000 less than last year, when the final addition to the grant was £470,000.
Except that the amount of the grant has been altered, the Bill is substantially the same in its provisions as the Act dealing with last year's grant which was before the Dáil six months ago. It provides that relief shall be given by way of a primary allowance on the first £20 of the valuation of land held by each occupier or on the occupier's whole land valuation if less than £20. In addition to the primary allowance there will be, as there was last year, two other allowances, namely, an employment allowance and a supplementary allowance. The employment allowance can be claimed by occupiers whose land valuation exceeds £20 where men were at work on the holding, whether as relatives or employees during the whole of the year 1934. No allowance is to be given in respect of casual employment. For each man at work an abatement will be made at the primary allowance rate on £12 10s. 0d. valuation if the occupier has so much additional valuation above £20. The primary allowance rate will be the same as last year, that is, it will be the total rate of relief which occupiers of land not exceeding £10 in valuation enjoyed in the year 1933-34.
The rate of the allowance in each county has been set out in the Rates on Agricultural Land (Certificate) Order, 1935. These rates vary from 8s. 8d. in the £ in County Kerry to 4s. 8½d. in the £ in County Meath. As neither the primary allowance rate nor the employment allowance will be altered, it follows that the only occupiers who will be affected by the reduction of the grants will be those of holdings above £20 valuation who either have no men at work or give employment to an extent which is not sufficient to cover the full valuation of their holdings, allowing £12 10s. 0d. for each man. The part of the valuation that does not rank for employment allowance will be reckoned for a supplementary allowance and this allowance must of necessity, owing to the reduction of the grant, be at a lower rate than last year as the balance of the grant available for supplementary allowances will, it is reckoned, be about 25 per cent. less than last year in every county.
With regard to the allocation of the grant—as set out in the Second Schedule—last year's allocation has been reduced in each county by a sum equivalent to 25 per cent. approximately of the cost of the supplementary allowances last year in that county. The sums in that Schedule, together with Dublin City's share in respect of added areas, make up the full grant.
The other parts of the Bill call for little comment. There is a slight change proposed with regard to credit notes. Every county council that wishes to do so will be in a position to make all the allowances by means of an abatement shown on the demand note, and there is no obligation on any council to give relief otherwise. There was, however, a strong desire in some counties to continue the system of credit notes and a provision is included which allows each council to utilise credit notes to a limited extent. The maximum amount that can be allowed by means of a credit note is about £2, half of which will be allowed on the payment of each moiety of the rate. It will not be open to any council, as it was last year, to give the employment or supplementary allowances by means of credit notes. The first part of the credit note, if issued, will expire at the end of next October, and the second part at the end of March, 1936.
No change is proposed on the method of dealing with urban districts that are entitled to get a share of the grant from county councils. They will get what they got in 1933-34, together with whatever addition may be necessary to bring the urban rate of relief on the first £20 up to the county rate.
A promise was made last year to consider a suggestion to admit employment allowance claims in certain cases in which the employee was in occupation of land of £5 valuation or over. It was urged that in Mayo, for example, where employees are sometimes themselves small farmers holding land more than £5 valuation, the condition in the Bill prevents their employers receiving an employment allowance in respect of them. It must be remembered that under the Bill the occupiers of £20 valuation and under get the maximum rate of relief unconditionally and that there is no employment allowance in respect of holdings of £20 valuation and under. A small holder who has a relative or employee at work on his farm gets no more relief on that account.
It may sometimes be the case that it is more profitable for a man with special skill who himself holds a fair sized farm to work for another and allow his own farm be worked by someone else. We think, if his land valuation is £5 or more, having given him relief as a rated occupier, we should not give relief to another occupier for employing him, and for that reason the suggestion made to us does not find a place in the Bill. It would, in any case, be difficult to make sure that an occupier who was employed by another did not, in fact, also work on his own farm.
This Bill, like its predecessor, is temporary, because we do not think the time has yet come to deal with more than one year ahead. Since 1930 the grant has varied every year—some years downward, some upward. The amount we are providing this year is, as I have said, less than last year's, but it is more than the year before and is more than three times the original grant.