I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This is a Bill to make certain amendments in the Vocational Education Act of 1930, amendments which have been found to be necessary in connection with the administration of that Act. The remedying of these defects is a matter of some urgency, and, accordingly, I have brought this Bill before the Dáil to remedy the defects in question. Section 2 of the Bill provides that a vocational education committee may, with the consent of the Minister for Education, sell or let any land which is vested in such committee. Under Section 28 of the Principal Act, the committee has power to acquire land. It has become apparent that it will be necessary that committees also should have power to sell or let land and the section provides that they will have this power in future. It will be observed that the amendment under Section 2 is to be retrospective as from the passing of the original Act in 1930. The reason is that in the interval there have been certain temporary lettings and, in fact, I think a sale has been put through by at least one vocational education committee, and the retrospective clause becomes necessary therefore.
Section 3 makes provision for a certain change in the wording of Section 43 of the Principal Act. In order to explain the meaning of the change and the object which it has in view, I think I should explain briefly the position with regard to the various schemes of vocational education committees. Under the 1930 Act, a vocational education committee must make before 15th January each year a demand on the local authority, whether it be urban, borough, or county council, as the case may be, for a contribution from the rates. The limits of this local contribution are determined by the amount of a rate levied on the valuation of the local area in question, as set out in the Principal Act. Hitherto, the amounts of these local contributions have been based on the valuation figures for the incoming financial year. As Deputies will see if they refer to the original Act, the phrase is "commencement of the financial year," but in actual fact the valuation figures for the incoming financial year are not known about the 15th January, which is the date upon which the Minister's certificate permitting the local vocational education committee to make its demand upon the local authority is issued. The valuation figures for the incoming financial year are not known until about six weeks after. It becomes necessary, therefore, to alter the original provision, which spoke of the valuation figures at the beginning of the incoming financial year, and to substitute therefor the valuation figures for the preceding financial year. We do not know the valuation figure at the 15th January, and by making this change we avoid error and we also place the vocational education committees in a better position to know what their income is likely to be; to know that accurately at the time they are making out their annual estimates for the next year's work. The substance then of that section is simply that, instead of taking the valuation figures for the incoming financial year as the basis for the local contribution under the 1930 Act, we are satisfied in future to take the valuation figures for the preceding year.
