The purpose of this short Bill is to continue, in permanent form, the existing temporary provisions for rates on fisheries. These provisions, which are due to expire at the end of September next, enable boards of conservators to strike and collect rates on fisheries within their districts.
It may be of interest to recall that fishery properties have been liable to rates in one form or another for more than a century. The Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, enabled the boards of conservators established by that statute to strike and collect rates on fisheries over and above the local authority rates payable on the fisheries under the then poor law relief provisions. This fishery rate was an amount equal to the difference between 10 per cent of the valuation of the fishery and the licence duties for engines used in fishing that fishery. These 1848 rating provisions have been suspended since 1925 but appear in the comprehensive Fisheries (Consolidation) Act, 1959, as section 63 which is being repealed by section 3 of the present Bill.
In 1925, as part of a drive to put fishery protection services on a more effective footing, the present system of fishery rating was introduced and fisheries were exempted from local authority rates. This system, which has since been continued from time to time, enables boards of conservators to strike on all fisheries within their districts rates of such amount per cent of the valuations as will, with their estimated income from other sources, be sufficient to meet the estimated amount of their expenditure for the fishery year to the end of September.
The local authorities, to whom fisheries had also been rateable up to 1925, receive compensation from the Exchequer for that loss in their rates. Where, by reason of the exemption of fisheries, a local rate on other property would have to be increased by more than 1d. in the £, the local authority receives an amount equivalent to that which would be produced by such an increase. The total amount of these compensatory payments from the Fisheries Vote in the last financial year was approximately £33,500.
The produce of the fishery rate is an important item in the revenue of boards of conservators. Out of the boards' total receipts of some £103,000 in the fishery year ended 30th September last, £36,000 came from fishery rates, close on £29,000 from licence duties and £23,000 in the form of grants from the Fisheries Vote. The State grants are first paid into the Salmon Conservancy Fund and indeed form the main income of that Fund an account of which is published annually with the Appropriation Accounts.
As I mentioned at the outset, this Bill merely continues the existing provisions for rates on fisheries. I do not claim that the system of fishery rating is perfect but in its present form it has proved of considerable value to boards of conservators and has come to be accepted as a permanent feature by all concerned. I can therefore confidently recommend this Bill to the House.
