As will be seen from the brief text of this Bill, it proposes merely to extend for another two years, as from 31st March last, the operation of the Local Government (Remission of Rates) Act, 1940. It contains no new principle. Beyond the extension of the time, to which I have referred, it does not amend the Principal Act in any way.
The Local Government (Remission of Rates) Bill, 1940, applied to residences which were not (a) cottages erected under the Labourers Acts; (b) houses under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, as amended by the Housing Act, 1932, or (c) houses in respect of which a grant was made under the Housing Acts, 1924 and 1925, or (d) under the Housing Acts, 1925 to 1931, or (e) houses in respect of which a grant was made under the Housing Acts, 1932 to 1942, or (f) houses not relieved of rates under the Gaeltacht Housing Acts. That is to say, it applies to houses which had not obtained any grant or any relief under any other Act. In respect of these houses excluded from the operation of other Acts, it provides that a remission of two-thirds of the rates for five years may be given in respect of them, although they have either been erected, enlarged or improved during the period commencing 1st October, 1939 and ending 31st March of this year.
The purpose of this Bill, as I have explained, is to grant a further extension of this concession up to the 31st March, 1948, so that new dwelling-houses, enlargements and improvements of existing houses completed in the current and next financial year may rank for remission of rates. I should, perhaps, make it quite clear, in case something that I have said may be ambiguous, that the total period for which this concession shall be secured in respect of any particular residence is five years. The Bill does not propose, in the case of residences which may have been erected in 1939, to extend the period during which a remission of rates would be obtainable from the year 1945 until 1948. It does not, in short, extend the period of the remission. It merely extends the period within which houses may be built, enlarged or improved in order to qualify for the remission. That is the general purpose of the Bill.