asked the Minister for Local Government the conditions under which ratepayers may avail themselves of the employment allowance to obtain a rebate of rates.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rates Rebate.
60.
Under the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Acts, in any financial year, an employment allowance of £17 is payable to rated occupiers of agricultural land in excess of £20 valuation, in respect of each adult workman who was at work on the holding during the whole of the previous calendar year. An adult workman for the purposes of the Acts is defined as a man who at the commencement of the qualifying period was not less than 16 nor more than 70 years of age and who was not and whose wife was not the rated occupier of agricultural land of £5 valuation and upwards. There is provision that if two or more men are successively at work on a holding or are employed in such a way that at all times during the calendar year there is one man at work, such workmen may be regarded as one man at work during the qualifying period. There is further provision that the total of the employment allowance and the supplementary allowance in any case will not exceed the rates payable on the land valuation over £20.
Is the Minister satisfied with the condition which prohibits a person from availing of employment offered to him under this provision because of the fact that the valuation of the little holding which he may have may be £5 or £6? Is the Minister aware that such a person is practically precluded from securing employment because of the fact that the prospective employer cannot obtain the rebate in respect of the employment allowance in consequence of employing him?
I am sure there are ways of getting around that that have been availed of largely in the past.
The £5 limitation obtains very strictly.
Yes, probably.
Is it correct to say that there are many cases throughout the country of farmers who are enjoying the benefit of this rebate in respect of the employment of their own sons?
Yes.
That would be a separate question.
The only distinction is that the farmers' sons are not paid for their employment.