I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This is a short Bill of eight clauses of a rather technical character. The purpose of the Bill is to amend in certain particulars five sections of the Labourers Act, 1936 and one section of the Housing and Labourers Act, 1937. To explain briefly the full purport of the Bill, it is necessary to say that the Labourers Act of 1936, as amended by Part III of the Housing and Labourers Act 1937, was framed for the purpose of enabling the occupiers of labourers' cottages to become the owners of the cottages, subject to the conditions set out in that Act, and to enable the country board of health, now the county council, by means of a purchase scheme to vest these cottages in the purchasers, that is, in the cottiers occupying them. Out of a total of 62,592 cottages in the State, 2,963 were, in fact, vested in the occupiers up to the end of last September. These figures, I suggest, speak for themselves and clearly indicate that the provisions of the 1936 Act were not availed of by those whom it was intended ostensibly to benefit from the provisions of that Act.
Section 2 of the Act of 1936 contains the definition of a purchase scheme which, in the case of a labourer's cottage, is the instrument by which occupancy is transferred into ownership. The purchase scheme is required to contain provisions relating to the terms of sale and the payment of annuities in respect of every cottage vested in the occupier. So far as the section goes, no clue was given as to the intention of the Government or the county council with regard to the basis on which these annuities would be fixed.
In practice, however, the schemes approved by the Minister contained a provision fixing the annuities on the basis of 75 per cent. of the rent payable before purchase. That is to say, a purchase scheme will not be approved by the Minister, unless it provides that the annuity payable under it will amount to a sum equal to 75 per cent. of the former rent, even though, when he was paying rent, the tenant was entitled to have repairs carried out for him by the country council, whereas under the purchase scheme he is personally responsible for the carrying out of all repairs to his own cottage.
Clause 3 of the Bill now under discussion seeks to amend this provision by inserting in the Principal Act a definition of the expression "terminable annuity." In this clause, the definition given to the expression is that it means an annuity which does not exceed 50 per cent. of the rent at which the cottage was let to the original occupier. Briefly, the effect of the proposal is that a cottage purchaser will pay an annuity of not more than half his former rent, instead of paying three-quarters, as was the case hitherto. Of course, under the Act of 1936, he also takes on the new liability of keeping the cottage in repair at his own expense. That obligation is not affected by the provisions of the present Bill.
The next important provision in the Bill is contained in Clause 6, which relates to the payment period. Again, the purpose of this clause can be stated briefly.
It is this: the payment period shall be reckoned as a term of 50 years from the date on which the cottage was let to its first occupier. If, therefore, a cottage is 40 years old at the date on which it is vested in the occupier under the Act of 1936, the Bill proposes that the payment of annuities will continue for another 10 years, when the payments will cease completely.
The Bill also proposes to modify one of the statutory conditions prescribed in the Act of 1936 in relation to a vesting order. Section 17 of that Act provides, for instance, that the vesting order shall contain a provision to the effect that, on the death of the purchaser, the cottage may be used only for the use of a relative who was resident in the cottage at the time of his death. There is a provision in the present Bill to remove the limiting words "at the time of death," that is to say, the Bill proposes that the widow, or a child of the owner, selected by him, may succeed him as owner of the cottage, even though such person was not actually residing in the cottage at the time of the owner's death.
