Six months ago the Seanad passed a temporary Bill dealing with the relief from rates to be given in the financial year that closed on 31st March last to occupiers of agricultural land. The present Bill reproduces for the most part that measure and deals with the grant for the current year.
There are, however, points of difference between the Bill now before the Seanad and last year's measure; but before referring to these it will perhaps be useful to recall the scheme that has been in operation. Last year every occupier of agricultural land not exceeding £20 in valuation got an abatement at the same rate as was given in the financial year 1933-34 to occupiers of land not exceeding £10 valuation. Relief at an equal rate was given on the first £20 valuation of larger holdings. This relief was called the primary allowance. Occupiers of land not exceeding £20 in valuation got the primary allowance and nothing more. Larger occupiers got, in addition to the primary allowance, an employment allowance or a supplementary allowance or both.
The employment allowance was given where one or more men were at work on the holding and the occupier made a claim. For each man employed an abatement was given at the primary allowance rate on £12 10s. if the occupier had so much additional valuation.
After the primary and employment allowances were paid there was a balance of the grant in every county which went to the relief of the part of the valuation above £20 in respect of which an employment allowance was not granted. This balance was applied by way of supplementary allowance at an equal rate over the remaining valuation. The supplementary rate of relief was everywhere below the primary allowance rate.
The present Bill makes similar arrangements with necessary changes for the current year. The period during which a man must be employed was, last year, the nine months that ended on 31st December, 1933. This year it is the whole of the year 1934. It might, perhaps, make the scheme clearer if I take a particular case and show how the relief is calculated. An occupier of a farm of which the land is valued at £50 has a relative and one paid man regularly at work. On the first £20 of the valuation he would get the primary rate of relief which differs in every county and is about 6/4 in the £ on the average. He would get relief at the primary rate on an additional £12 10s. for his relative and also on £12 10s. for his labourer. That means that he would get the maximum rate of relief on £45 altogether. On the remaining £5 valuation he would get relief at the supplementary allowance rate which this year will approximate in the average case to about half of the primary rate.
Now I come to the points of difference between this year's Bill and last year's. The main difference is in the amount of the grant. Last year the grant was £1,970,000, this year it will be £1,870,000, or £100,000 less. I may say here that the sum of £370,000, which is mentioned in Section 4, is the amount that must be added to the sums provided under the Acts of 1898, 1925 and 1931, to make up the full grant. The reduction this year will not affect the majority of occupiers as it will come out of the money available for the supplementary allowance. Approximately £400,000 was the cost of the supplementary allowances last year. The share of each county has been reduced by one quarter the cost of these allowances and the effect of this will normally be to reduce the supplementary allowance rate by one quarter. In connection with this reduction I may mention that it was never intended to maintain the supplementary allowance rate at last year's figure and when speaking in the Dáil on last year's Bill I thought it advisable to give warning that, where employment commensurate with the valuation of the holding was not afforded, occupiers should not expect to get relief in future years at the same rate as in the initial year.
The other changes are of less importance. It is left to each county council to decide whether they will give part of the abatement by means of the issue of credit notes or not. The part that can be given in this way approximates to about 2/- in the £ on the specified valuation, which means that ordinarily the credit note will amount to £1 approximately on each moiety if the valuation is £20 or over and proportionately less for lower valuations. The credit notes expire on 31st October and 31st March, but the council is given power, if they use credit notes, to extend the time in which the first moiety note can be tendered and accepted by three months and, in the case of the second, by one month. The purpose of the credit note is to offer an inducement to early payment and penalise delay. If the period in which it can be availed of is extended too far the credit note does not fulfil any purpose. Last year credit notes were in some counties issued for very large amounts and for that reason I have not refused consent to any council that wished to extend the period in which they could be realised. This year the amounts are strictly limited in amount and I think there should be some definite time within which they should be realised if they are to be of any use.
Urban districts that are entitled to participate in the grant will be treated in the same manner as last year, that is, they will get from county councils the same as they got in 1933 and, in addition, whatever is necessary to bring the rate of relief in the district, on the first £20, up to the primary rate of relief in the county. There are 22 of these urban districts, all of which have been created or extended since the Act of 1898 was passed and are for that reason getting a share of the grant.
If the share going to a county is reduced to a sum below the amount of the grant fixed in the Bill, as has happened owing to the operation of the Guarantee Fund, the shares of the urban districts in the county will be proportionately reduced.
The Bill is a temporary measure applying only to the present year. When it will be possible to bring forward a permanent measure I cannot say, though I am not without hope that the next Bill will cover more than a single year. For six years in succession the grant has varied, some years upwards and some downwards, and I am afraid it cannot be assumed it has yet settled at a fixed figure.