I do not think that we are entitled to discuss that but we may be able to drag it in later. The land revenues of the Crown in Ireland were under the management of the Commissioners of Excise in Ireland up to 1827, when they became vested in the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The rents continued to be collected by the collectors of Customs and Excise, who are paid 2 per cent. on the sums collected, plus bonus at the prevailing rates. The annual expenditure involved has been about £100 in recent years. It is proposed to have the work of collection centred in the Quit Rent Office and this has already been done in the case of the Cork and Waterford areas as from the 1st January, 1935. The work of collection respecting Limerick, Galway and Dublin areas will be transferred as opportunity arises. Since the transfer of the former Crown lands and revenue to the Saorstát, the quit and other rents have been paid into an account known as the Woods and Forests Fund Account at the Bank of Ireland, and Land Bonds transferred on the redemption of quit rents have been credited to the same account.
Under the Crown Land Acts, the net income arising from the Crown lands, when collected by the Commissioners for Woods and Forests, was paid into the Exchequer for the relief of taxation. while the proceeds of sale of real property were reinvested in similar property or in redemption of charges on land, or, pending such reinvestment, were invested in trustee securities. The Department of Finance is advised that the effect of Article 11 of the Constitution is to repeal the provisions of the Crown Lands Acts so far the the Saorstát is concerned, and, as a consequence, the Saorstát has no legal authority for the utilisation of the accrued income of the Woods and Forests Fund Account. Pending the introduction of legislation, the drafting of which is at present under consideration, to enable the income arising in this way to be disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer, there is no alternative to continuing to pay the income into this fund, which must, in the meantime, be maintained intact at the Bank of Ireland. The fund is not altogether without benefit to the State at present inasmuch as the moneys are invested mainly in Saorstát Government securities. I understand that the collection used to be somewhere about £50,000, but it is now what I may describe as a gradually diminishing asset.
The administration of the rental, as already mentioned, is not confined to collection. Every case of a sale of land through the Land Commission has to be referred to the Quit Rent Office, and involves the complete investigation of title to ascertain the position as to quit rent and reversions. This duty is laborious and has to be performed with the greatest care, because quit rents, as well as other charges on lands, have to be extinguished in the process of purchase through the Land Commission, and, unless the quit rent is traced and redeemed at its proper value before the sale is completed, the value of the quit rent would be lost to the State. It is on this work, and not merely the collection of the rents, that the staff as a whole is engaged. It is detailed and tedious work.