Vol. 19 No. 11
Sub-section (1) (d) says:
"where the Irish Land Commission is rated in respect of only one tenement of agricultural land in such county and the valuation under the Valuation Acts of the agricultural land included in such tenement exceeds twenty pounds, the specified valuation of such agricultural land shall be twenty pounds."
I want to ask the Minister the meaning of that sub-section. If the Land Commission are rated at £100, why should the valuation be reduced to £20?
The valuation on which a primary relief grant can be given cannot exceed £20.
That applies everywhere.
It applies to the Irish Land Commission also. If the Senator reads paragraph (e) he will see that there is a difference between the treatment that the Land Commission gets, where it has more than one holding, and that given to an individual. An individual can only get relief on the first £20, no matter how many holdings he has. If the Land Commission has more than one holding in a county it can get relief, as is also provided in another section in the case of trustees, for each holding. I think the matter is clear.
This only applies to the primary grant.
The specific valuation upon which the primary grant is made.
In this section it is mentioned that in order to recover the amount of the credit notes the rates must be paid before the end of the financial year. In my county, the credit notes were only issued on Christmas Day while there is a stipulation that the rates should be paid by the first day of this year. It would be impossible for a great many farmers to procure sufficient money to pay the amounts between Christmas Day and the first of January, and I suggest to the Minister that the time should be extended.
The section provides for that. The year before there was no provision to extend the time beyond March 31st but this year, where county councils ask the Minister to extend the time, and where a case is made by county councils, he will do so.
