I move amendment No. 22a:—
Before paragraph (b) of sub-section (2) to insert a new paragraph as follows:—
(b) where the grant is in respect of the erection of a house, a contract for the purchase of a site for such erection was completed before that date.
In amendment No. 22 the Minister has covered a great many cases, and I must pay a tribute to the fact that he did make an effort to meet them. Amendment No. 22a, however, is in respect of a further type of case of which I have some personal knowledge. I know of three cases in County Kildare where people bought sites in the belief that they would be able to get grants from the Kildare County Council under the 1950 Act. So far as I am aware, they are people who will be round about the limits in the section. I am not sufficiently acquainted with their exact means to know whether the three people would or would not come within Section 9 or Section 10. What I am trying to get at in this amendment and the next one is where a person had taken an irrecoverable step in the genuine and bona fide belief that the Kildare County Council would carry out what it was known they wished to carry out, namely, to give grants under that scheme, and had bought and paid for a site that he would not be put in an unfair and unfortunate position as a result of what we may do in this Bill.
The Minister, on Second Reading, made it clear that he would not throw the door open wide to everybody who of view. But here is a case where there was a specific step taken. The Minister is probably aware or, if he is not aware, he can ask his colleague, the Minister for Justice, that there is put in an application. If you accept the earlier sections, I can see his point a delay of about four months in the registration of title in the Land Registry for a new folio such as would be required for a site of this kind. In one of the cases I have in mind the purchase was completed last February and application had been duly made to the county council. The registration, although it was lodged last February, was only completed by the Land Registry in the beginning of the month of May. Until the registration is completed, the purchaser of the site who is going to erect a house would not be able to get a loan under the Small Dwellings Act. That person did not think it would be wise to start building until the Small Dwellings Act title had been proved, because, otherwise, he would be in the position of having his house put up and the builder looking for the first instalment and, because of the Land Registry's delay, would not be able to get the instalment from the county council under the Small Dwellings Act. Accordingly, he deemed it prudent not to start the house until the Land Registry had completed registration of the title. That seems very bad luck for him.
In the second case, a man paid £75 for a site. He took all the steps that were proper and reasonable for a prudent man to take. Now, because of the provisions of this Bill he will not be able to deal with this matter as he genuinely and bona fide believed he could. He cannot hand back the site to the persons from whom he bought it. It has been taken out of the title of the vendor and it has gone into the name of the purchaser. Unless he is protected in some way the position will be that he will have paid his £75 for a couple of roods of land that will be of no use to him. I do not think the Minister intended that to operate in introducing this Bill.