Vol. 211 No. 8
I move:
That a sum not exceeding £7,062,000 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1965, for Grants to Local Authorities in Relief of Rates on Agricultural Land.
I may say that there will be a Supplementary Estimate coming later.
I propose to raise a number of matters on the Supplementary Estimate. I wish to protest most strongly against the manner in which farmers in large urban areas are deprived of relief of rates under this Vote. The urban district of Naas is one of the largest in the country and farmers there get no benefits whatever from residing in an urban district. I can understand people who are right in the middle of a town, if there is land in the middle of a town, getting some additional benefit from the urbanisation, but in the case of Naas there is an enormous hinterland around what I may call the city part of Naas where there are ordinary farmers, some of them small farmers, who are getting no benefit whatever under the last relief of rates of two years ago or, as far as I can gather, under the relief of rates announced in the recent Budget. It is unfair. They have to meet their expenses and get their profit out of farming in exactly the same way as their neighbours outside the urban area and there is no rational basis whatsoever for the unfair differentiation against them and, in particular, against the people of my own town of Naas who are farmers in that borderline area.
I would strongly urge the Minister to accede to the resolution that was sent up, either to him or to his colleague, the Minister for Local Government, by the Naas urban council in which, apart from the resolution itself, they set out very clearly the hardships imposed on these farmers by their not qualifying for the relief of rates under this heading.
The Deputy will agree, of course, that the general idea behind this is that people who own land in the urban area are likely to benefit very materially by the increased price of land when the town or city comes to be expanded. There may be a case, I quite admit, such as the one mentioned by the Deputy, where a town is not likely to expand for many years to the extent of absorbing the land that is now in the urban area. Although the secretary of the Department of Lands, the accounting officer, is here, my function is only to find the money. The Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Local Government pressed the scheme on me and I do not feel that I am competent to interfere with their scheme but I will, however, have this matter considered of, at least, let us say, urban areas where there is a big amount of land included.
I am obliged to the Minister. Of course, a word from the man who is finding the cash is always very helpful.
