Vol. 181 No. 3
asked the Minister for Local Government if farmers are allowed rebates on rates under the Agricultural Grant in respect of (a) agricultural employees and (b) horticultural employees employed within county borough and other urban areas; and, if not, why.
23.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware that a number of agricultural employers in the Dublin County Borough area are not allowed the usual rebates under the Agricultural Grant because of the extension of the municipal boundary in 1953; and as these agricultural employers are paying the highest farm wages in the State as well as providing more than average full-time employment, if he will consider introducing amending legislation so that agricultural employers in county borough areas will qualify for the Agricultural Grant in the same way as rural employers.
I propose with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 22 and 23 together. Primary and employment allowances under the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Acts are not given to occupiers of agricultural land in county boroughs, boroughs and urban districts. Rates in these areas are, however, assessed on a fraction only of the land valuation and there is no upper valuation limit for receipt of this rate relief such as that which obtains in the case of the primary allowance in county health districts. The distinction made between land in urban and land in rural areas for purposes of relief from rates has been maintained in respect of the agricultural land included in Dublin County Borough on the various occasions when the city boundary has been extended. I am not at present prepared to consider the introduction of amending legislation to make exceptional provision in relation to land so included by virtue of the 1953 extension or to alter the present incidence of rates on urban land generally.
