This is a Bill to extend for a further period of two and a half years the Local Government (Remission of Rates) Act, 1940. The Act of 1940 granted a remission of rates only in respect of such buildings as were completed prior to 30th September, 1942. The Bill proposes to extend that measure so that the remission obtainable will be obtainable in respect of buildings completed prior to 31st March, 1945. It is important in that connection to understand that the remission granted under the 1940 Act was intended to apply only to residences which had not secured a remission or a grant under any other Act, that is to say, under the Housing Acts, or the Gaeltacht Housing Acts. On reconsideration of the terms of the principal measure, it appeared that there was some possibility that one measure would overlap the other. Accordingly, Section 2 (1) (b) of this measure provides for a redefinition of the word "residence" in such a form as will preclude the overlapping which it was thought might be held by the courts to exist.
I should like to make it clear, however, that this re-definition has not retrospective effect, in so far as there may be in existence some building—we in the Department do not, in fact, know of any— which has secured a remission under the Act of 1940, and which was, at the same time, entitled to a grant, remission, or some other concession to induce building under some other Act. This precautionary reservation is introduced into Section 2 so as to ensure that where some concession has been granted mistakenly under the Act of 1940, that concession will still continue to subsist and will not be rendered null and void.
