I move amendment No. 1:
Section 2. In sub-section (2), line 29, after the word "boroughs" to insert the words "and shall also be payable by the councils of such counties to the councils of urban areas (other than county boroughs) in respect of agricultural land within such urban areas which are excluded from the application of such grant by sub-section (4) of Section 48 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 and that sub-section shall be construed accordingly.
Section 48, sub-section (4) of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 provides:
The provisions of this Act with respect to agricultural land shall extend to every hereditament entered as land in the valuation list within the meaning of the Valuation Acts which is not part of a railway or canal, but shall not extend to any hereditament situate within the boundary of any borough or of any town which is (for the time being) an urban sanitary district.
That particular sub-section, I think, rules out any urban area urbanised prior to that Act. Section 50 of the same Act provides:
Where, by virtue of an order respecting the constitution of an urban county district, whether by the constitution of a new or the extension of the boundaries of an old urban county district, any agricultural land in a rural district becomes included within the boundaries of the said urban district, such portion of the agricultural grant payable to the council of the county comprising the district as is proportionate to the rateable value in the standard financial year of that agricultural land shall be applied by the county council in manner directed by the said order for the relief of the said land from rates, whether by the payment thereof to the council of the urban district in exchange for an adequate exemption from rates or otherwise.
That section provides that agricultural land situate in a district or area not then urbanised but which became urbanised subsequent to the passing of the Act of 1898, shall continue to get the relief of the agricultural grant. I put down this amendment for the purpose of bringing agricultural land within areas which were urbanised prior to the passing of the 1898 Act within the reliefs provided under the agricultural grants. What are agricultural lands? I do not know that we have any clear definition of them, but I notice that in an amendment in the names of Deputies Seán Guilidhe and Frank Aiken they have defined to some extent the term agricultural land as "lands occupied and used as an ordinary farm in accordance with the proper methods of husbandry." I think that is a very good definition of agricultural land. The owners or occupiers of lands within these urban areas that are exempted from this relief feel that they have a grievance, and I think they have. At the moment the world-wide depression has affected these urban areas just as much, and perhaps more in many cases, than it has affected any other area in the Saorstát. Many of these urban areas are very heavily rated, and I think it must be conceded that it is impossible to expect or that it is not fair to expect the occupiers of these lands, who use them for agricultural purposes, to compete with their neighbours in adjoining urban areas whose lands receive the benefit of the agricultural grant.
The transport system that we have experienced within recent years left a great many of these urban areas without business. Some Deputies, I think, have the idea in their minds that everyone living within an urban area is wealthy and hence that there is no need of relief for them. I do not think that there is any farmer whose lands will get relief under the agricultural grant or under this Bill who will object to portion of this money being applied to agricultural lands within urban districts. We must regard land in the urban districts as being part and parcel of the agricultural industry. They are worked in the interests of the industry and they must carry overhead charges just the same as in the rural areas. Nowadays, when competition in the markets is so keen, it is not fair or equitable that we should ask occupiers of land in urban areas, urbanised prior to 1898, to go into competition with their neighbours who have the advantage of this relief. I do not consider that we would be doing any injustice to farmers in the rural areas if this amendment were accepted. I feel confident that the House and the Minister will accept my amendment. It does not propose to do an injustice to any other section of the community. It will confer on the owners of land in the areas referred to very great benefit.