Vol. 66 No. 4
I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £2,367 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch ‘an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1938, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an tSaor-Chíosa.
That a sum not exceeding £2,367 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1938, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Quit Rent Office.
The amount provided for the year 1937-38 is £3,617, which shows an increase of £119 on the provision of last year. It may be remembered that last year I was asked what a quit rent was, and I had to admit that my legal education had not reached the level which probably it ought to have reached. I have improved it in the meantime, and I am now in a position to inform the House what a quit rent is. The quit rents collected by the Quit Rent Office, as distinct from manorial rents, fixed in early times in discharge of certain feudal obligations and to which the term "quit rent" is generally applied, may be more accurately defined as an acreable rent reserved upon all the estates in Ireland which were forfeited by the rebellion of 1641, and granted by the Crown to adventurers, soldiers and debenturers; and on lands which were then seized and later restored to innocent persons by decrees and certificates; or on lands given to transplanters. These rents were fixed at the following rates per English statute acre: In Leinster, 3d.; in Munster, 2¼d.; in Ulster, 2d.; and in Connacht, 1½d. The term "quit rent" is derived from the fact that the lands affected were relieved from all other charges in favour of the new rents which were fixed in perpetuity. If any Deputy in the House desires to go more deeply into the subject I would refer him to Howard's "Exchequer and Revenue, Ireland, 1776," which contains a full description of these rents, page 31, et seq.
I should like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether what I might call the association of this Department with the general Government control has been tightened up? When an inquiry into certain gold-mining operations was taking place, and relevant documents and information had to be got, if I remember rightly, the existence of the Quit Rent Office seems to have been overlooked, and the records one wanted were really not adequately supplied because nobody seemed responsible for it. Nobody seemed to have thought that such a place existed, and that the matters which we were discussing to some extent came under the aegis of that Department. It seemed to be a sort of orphan, a remote island which had no contact with any other aspect of Government business, and was completely forgotten except when it came to discussing an Estimate for it in this House.
There is a certain amount of truth in that suggestion.
I hope it has come under the microscope a bit more.
