This is a short Bill relatively free from technical complexities and it should not cause any great difficulties for the House. The Bill has three purposes which I propose to discuss individually to facilitate consideration by Senators.
The first purpose as provided for in section 1 is to make a further increase in the total amount of land bonds which may be created and issued by the Minister for Finance for the purpose of making advances and paying purchase moneys in respect of land taken over by the Land Commission for the purposes of the land settlement programme. Senators will be aware that we have had similar increases on two occasions since the original limit of £10 million was imposed by section 6 (1) of the Land Bond Act, 1934. That limit of £10 million was increased to £15 million by section 7, Land Act, 1953, and to £25 million by section 2, Land Bond Act, 1964.
Land bonds required to make advances and to meet the cost of land taken over by the Land Commission are created by the Minister for Finance, usually on an annual basis, as they are required by the Land Commission. The latest order made by the Minister for Finance on 23rd June, 1969, creating a series of £100,000 land bonds has brought the total amount created under various Land Bond Orders to £25 million, that is the total amount currently authorised by statute. It is, therefore, necessary to provide legislative authority for the creation of a further series. Having regard to experience over the last few years, it is desirable on this occasion to provide authority for the creation of a further series of bonds amounting to £15 million. It is reckoned that such an amount should provide sufficient bonds for a period of about seven years.
Senators will appreciate that land prices continue to rise and maintenance of the land settlement programme, even at its existing level, would necessitate an expanded supply of land bonds. But this is only part of the increase required. The Government, as announced in the Third Programme for Economic and Social Expansion, are committed to an intensification and acceleration of the work of land acquisition and division, especially in small farming areas. I know there will be general sympathy with the work of improving the lot of small farmers by providing them with sufficient additional land to put them on a viable basis and I believe the House would not wish to see this work delayed in any way because of lack of land bonds. I could remind the House, in fact, that the Land Bond Act, 1964, which increased the previous limit by £10 million, proved non-contentious and got a speedy passage in both Houses.
Apart from land purchased or acquired for land bonds the Land Commission are buying an increasing area of land each year for cash. Senators will be aware that the Land Act, 1965, removed the restrictive application of section 27 of the Land Act, 1950, and as a consequence purchases for cash may now be made by the Land Commission for all the purposes of the Land Acts. For the current year, a record sum of £600,000 has been provided for these purchases, representing an increase of no less than £170,000 over the amount provided last year. In the case of cash also it will be our desire to provide a constantly increasing supply of money so that the Government's policy of speeding up the work of land reform can be implemented as announced in the Third Programme.
The second purpose of the Bill, as provided for in section 2, is to simplify the land bond system by changing existing and future land bonds from numbered bonds in three denominations to unnumbered bonds in £1 units. Under the existing system, land bonds have heretofore been issued in numbered denominations of £100, £10 and £1 and these denominations once registered cannot be subdivided. This system is now becoming very cumbersome and is giving rise to difficulties such as: (i) On transfer forms the numbers of all bonds or groups of bonds for transfer must be shown, and this can involve considerable work for stockbrokers, solicitors and banks acting as agents for land bond holders; (ii) It is often impossible for a holder to divide a land bond holding as the holder may wish. For instance a holding of £1,000 in land bonds made up of 10 £100 bonds cannot be equally divided into three or four equal parts; (iii) It is difficult for trustees to acquire a particular amount of bonds owing to a scarcity of £1 or £10 bonds available.
By changing the bonds into unnumbered bonds of £1 units these difficulties will be removed. The proposed change has been welcomed by the committees of the various stock exchages in which dealings in land bonds take place.
The third purpose of the Bill, as provided for in section 3, is to authorise the transfer of registers of land bonds from Chase & Bank of Ireland (International) Limited to the Bank of Ireland.
Since the inception of the land bond system the registers have been kept by the former National City Bank, which since 1926 was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ireland. Since the reorganisation of the bank by the acquisition by the Chase Manhattan Bank of New York of 50 per cent of the share capital the character and type of work being performed by the bank makes it inappropriate that the work of registration of land bonds should be performed by it. This work is accordingly being transferred to the Head Office of the Bank of Ireland, where the registers of most other Government stocks are kept.
This Bill will authorise the provision of funds in the form of land bonds to enable the Land Commission to press ahead with the land reform programme and will also simplify the clerical procedures for registering and transferring the bonds. I can commend it to the House on this basis.
