I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The Minister for Finance in his Budget statement this year announced his intention of asking the Dáil to vote an increase in the agricultural grant in order to allow further rate relief to occupiers of agricultural land. At the time the announcement was made the county councils were well advanced in the preparations for levying the rates for the current year. Accordingly on the Dáil approving of the Minister's proposals, the councils had to be instructed to take steps to make the additional relief available in respect of the present rates.
As these reliefs differ from those provided for in the existing law, which is contained in the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act, 1939, it is necessary to bring in this amending Bill to give statutory authority to them and to the action which has been taken by the councils in anticipation of such authority. The Bill, I should emphasise, also makes provision not only for the increased grant in relief of rates this year, but for next year as well.
As the House is aware, I am sure, the agricultural grant had its origin in the Local Government Act of 1898, and by reason of that fact, it has preserved in its allocation many features which arose out of the circumstances of that time. It amounted originally to one-half of the total amount raised by poor rate and county cess off agricultural land 50 years ago. For the whole of Ireland it was over £727,000, of which almost £600,000—£599,011 to be exact—was the share of the Twenty-Six Counties.
The agricultural grant remained at the sum at which it had been fixed until 1925. In that year the Oireachtas doubled the grant, thus increasing it to £1,198,022, at which figure it remained until 1931, when an additional sum of £750,000 was voted. In the following year, that is, the year 1932-33, the grant was again increased, this time by £250,000. For this allocation a new and novel basis was adopted.
The new grant was intended mainly to benefit the small farmer and was divided between the counties in proportion to the valuation of all holdings under £10, and for the first £10 of larger holdings, and was applied to the relief of rates on such holdings or parts of holdings. The addition of £250,000, to which I have referred, brought the total grant up to £2,198,022, which was the largest amount given in any year until the present. In the years following 1932-33 various changes were made in the amount of the grant and in the principles on which it was allocated until, in 1939, the Oireachtas passed the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act, by which the grant was fixed at £1,870,000 and the method of allocating and distributing it which has heretofore obtained was settled.
I assume, and I trust correctly, that it is not necessary for me to recount in full detail the main provisions of the 1939 Act. Briefly, it provided for the application of the agricultural grant to the relief of rates in three allowances which were known as the primary, the employment and the supplementary allowance, respectively. The primary allowance was given in respect of the rates on the first £20 valuation of every holding. Where the total valuation of the holding was less than £20, the primary allowance was given on the whole valuation of that holding. Where the owner had male relatives, or other men, employed on the holding a further limited allowance was given towards the rates on that valuation of the holding which was in excess of £20, and this constituted what was known as the employment allowance. Finally, the supplementary allowance was given in relief of the rates on that portion of the valuation of the holding in respect of which no other allowance was obtainable. Under the 1939 Act, the procedure for settling the amount of the allowances and determining the various rates of relief was somewhat cumbersome and perhaps even arbitrary. One of the merits which I think may be claimed for the present Bill is that it sweeps away many anachronisms and anomalies, and provides that the distribution of the allowances will be governed by simple mathematical formulae which will uniformly apply to the country as a whole. Last year, as the House knows, the distribution of the grant was governed by the 1939 Act. Out of the total of £1,870,000 available under that Act, the primary allowances took £1,212,740, the employment allowances took £351,298 and the supplementary allowances £297,093. The balance, amounting to £8,869 of the total grant, went to certain urban areas that had been constituted or whose boundaries had been extended since 1898. Under this Bill, the amount of the allowances under all heads will be very substantially increased. Thus, according to the estimates supplied by the county councils, the primary allowances will take over £1,820,000 as against £1,212,740, employment allowances will take about £590,000 as against £351,298, and the supplementary allowances over £460,000 as against £297,093.
In drafting the new measure which is to provide for regulating the distribution of these increases, the principle originally embodied in the scheme for 1932, that the greater need of the small farmer in this matter of rating relief must be provided for, has been retained. Whilst effecting this, however, it is also proposed, as I have mentioned, to bring about a general uniformity in the rate of the primary allowance.
I have already reminded the House that in the beginning the agricultural grant was equal to half the poor rates and county cess as they stood 50 years ago, but since then the rates have become widely different as between one county and another, so that, notwithstanding the efforts which have been made from time to time to secure greater uniformity of treatment over the State as a whole, great disparities still exist between the ratio of the grant to rates in the several counties.
The generous grant which this Bill provides for offers an opportunity to remedy this situation, and due advantage has been taken of it.
Henceforward the rates as they stood in a particular county 50 years ago will no longer affect the allocation or distribution of the agricultural grant and, what is perhaps equally important, it is not proposed to fix the grant at all in relation either to the primary or the supplementary allowance.
The amount of the grant will be what is needed to give the increased reliefs under these heads whatever that sum may be. This represents I think a concession of very great value indeed to the local authorities and to the agricultural community and I am sure will be fully appreciated by them.
After the passage of this Bill the primary allowance rate, which is the rate of relief given on all valuations up to £20 and on the first £20 of higher valuations, will be three-fifths of the general rate for the year and will, therefore, vary as the rate varies. This, I am sure, will commend itself to the Dáil. It is certainly, as I have said, an arrangement much more equitable in itself and much more favourable to the county councils than that hitherto obtaining. The supplementary allowance rate will be fixed at one-fifth of the general rate and will be allowed on the whole valuation above £20. At present, as we know, it is allowed only on that part of the valuation above £20 which does not rank for employment allowance.
In addition to these two allowances, there will be an employment allowance but it will be at a very much higher rate than the existing allowance. Hitherto the employment allowance varied according to the primary rate of relief—on the average it worked out at about £3 for each worker. As, however, a supplementary allowance was granted in respect of any valuation over £20 for which an employment allowance was not obtainable, the net advantage to the occupier who had a man at work was only about 30/-, because if he did not get an employment allowance he got a supplementary allowance. Under this Bill, the average net employment allowance will be more than trebled, for it is proposed to raise the allowance to a maximum of £6 10s. per man employed and to make it a uniform rate throughout the country. Hitherto the employment allowance rate varied by counties between the limits of 4/8½ and 8/8, because it varied with the primary allowance rate. Subject to the maximum prescribed by Section 7 (1) (c), it will be allowed both this year and next year in every county at the rate of 10/- in the £ on each £ of the valuation above £20. Perhaps an example will give the Dáil a better appreciation of what is intended. If, for instance, an occupier of land valued at £33 has one man, either relative or employee, at work he will get by way of relief: first, 3/5ths of the general rate on £20, then 1/5th on £13, which is the part of the valuation above £20 and, in addition, he will get the employment allowance of £6 10s., that is 10/- in the £ on £13.
