asked the Minister for Lands if he will state under what authority and on what basis tithe rent charges are levied on certain lands.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tithe Rent Charges.
Mr. Boland
Tithes are thought to have originated in the practice of paying in kind one-tenth of the produce of the land for the sustenance of the local clergy. In course of time these payments in kind were commuted into money compositions chargeable on the land. The money charge was assessed and apportioned under an Act of 1823 known as Goulburns Act, which established money compositions in lieu of tithes in kind, based on the estimated value of such tithes and on the area and valuation of lands apportioned, but variable according to the price of produce.
By the Tithe Rent Charge Act of 1838 compositions were abolished and yearly tithe rent charges were established at three-fourths of the amount of the compositions and were made payable by the person having the first estate of inheritance.
Ecclesiastical tithe rent charges levied on landed property in Ireland were taken over by the State in 1869 on the disestablishment of the Protestant Church of Ireland, and the surplus remaining after liquidating the liabilities imposed on the Church Temporalities Fund under the Irish Church Act of 1869 was appropriated to a number of national purposes. Under the Irish Church (Amendment) Act of 1881 the temporalities of the late Established Church were vested in the Land Commission and the income therefrom is devoted to such national purposes as intermediate education, the National University, the Department of Agriculture, etc. In view of some popular misconception, I would emphasise that tithe rent charges in this country have now no religious significance whatever. They are not paid over to any Church and they constitute a purely secular charge on the lands to which they are appurtenant. Tithe rent charges payable to the Land Commission are, in fact, similar to State revenue. As such, the payers thereof have been accorded the benefits provided for in Section 18 of the Land Act, 1933, on lines similar to the reductions given to payers of land purchase annuities.