Under the existing legislation public expenditure in connection with the installation of new sewerage works, new waterworks or extensions of such works has to be related to a fairly wide area of charge so that there may be suitable security for the loans. At the present moment an area of charge can be fixed for a townland, a dispensary district, a rural district or, in certain cases where the local sanitary authority so resolves, the expenditure may be borne over the whole of the county board of health district. The experience is that the smaller towns are the places where works of this particular nature are required and the valuations of the smaller towns are such that the area of charge has to be extended over a pretty considerable area of agricultural land. There is a flat rate over that area and the result is that the area that immediately benefits is charged only the same rate as the hereditaments situated in the farthest part of the area of charge, which may be over either a rural district or a dispensary district.
When I came into touch with this problem I thought the most desirable thing would be to get county councils to make the county board of health area the area of charge for all these works. That was done only in one area. The county councils are not, to a certain extent, tending to travel in that direction at the present time and, personally, I am rather inclined to change my mind as to the desirability of making this charge a county-at-large charge, a flat charge over the county board of health district, for the reason that, when the charge is over the county district, local areas, because the charge is going to be fairly wide-flung, are rather extravagant in their demands.
The present Bill makes it possible to do two things. It makes it possible for the county council to agree that they will levy a small charge, a fraction of a penny, over the county health area as a whole with a view to contributing an annual grant towards paying off the loan charges. That will be of considerable assistance in these matters. In the second place, it provides that where an area of charge is being set up it may be divided into an area-of-charge proper and a sub-area of charge, so that in the case of a town like Gort, where at present there are proposals to carry out a work running into £2,868, if it has to be borne entirely by the rural districts it would mean a rate of 2¾d.; if borne by the dispensary district, a rate of 6¾d., and if borne by the town itself, a rate of 5/-. These charges for the benefit of the town of Gort would put a fairly substantial charge over a rural district which, it might be argued, did not derive even a remote advantage from the scheme. If, on the other hand, the county council agreed to give a contribution of £300 a year towards the loan charges, involving only a fraction like one-sixth of a penny in the pound over the county health area, then it would mean ½d. on the rural district as a whole and 1/- on the town in order to give Gort the scheme it wants. That is a sample of what the Bill sets out to do.
The principle generally will be agreed upon that the area immediately benefiting ought to contribute at a higher rate than the agricultural land which happens to be in the dispensary or the rural district. It is an advisable thing that county authorities would assist those schemes from the county at large charge. In giving assistance of this particular kind it will be possible for any county assisting whatever number of schemes it may decide to assist to raise a rate not greater than 1½d. in the pound or, with the sanction of the Minister, not greater than 3d. in the pound. The raising of a rate over the county area as a whole will be entirely within the discretion of the local authority. Considering the problems that arise in the case of smaller towns we in the Department and those engaged on local government work in various parts of the country think that this will be of assistance to them.