Section 1 provides that the maximum contribution payable will be increased from 27 times the produce of one old penny in the £ to 15 times the produce of one new penny in the £. There is a table in my brief which would be very difficult to read out but it sets out the progressive increase in recent years. In the last couple of years it was increased to 25 pence the optional additional rate as well as the minimum twopence. It was 27 pence in 1970, 21 pence in 1964 and 15 pence in 1958 and in 1955 it was 10 pence. There has been a steady rise and we are now providing another rise up to 36 old pence.
Since the Agriculture (Amendment) Act, 1970, came into force, 20 committees have been obliged to ask for a rate higher than the maximum of 21p in the £ prescribed in the 1964 Act and hence we had the 1970 Act. We have had increased salaries and a deterioration of the financial situation of all the committees. Since the 1970 Act was introduced committees of agriculture were obliged to apply the second phase of the 11th round pay increase of 4 per cent and 3 per cent in addition to arbitration awards to members of advisory staffs. After that, further increases to instructors serving in the advisory services were awarded in July, 1970. There was a 12th round pay increase of 7 per cent with effect from 1st April, 1970 and an additional 10 per cent from 1st January, 1971, was also awarded. These increases were necessary to keep the officers concerned in line with people in the public service sector generally. That was the reason for the introduction of section 1.