The purpose of this Bill is to provide for the issue of Land Bonds to finance all the land purchase transactions which were pending on the 18th December, 1932, the date on which the British Government Guarantee, in respect of land bonds, expired. Under the Bill "pending cases" are defined, first, as regards tenanted land, as meaning holdings of which particulars were lodged with the Land Commission before the passing of the Act, and subtenancies upon such holdings and, also holdings held in fee farm grant in respect of which applications were received before the passing of the Act.
As regards untenanted land "pending cases" are those in which the price was fixed, or agreed to, before the passing of the Act, with this further amendment, which it is proposed to ask the Seanad to agree to be inserted on the Committee Stage of the Bill. Paragraph (d) reads: "untenanted land which hereafter becomes vested in the Land Commission under Section 24 of the Land Act of 1923, but the price of which was fixed before the passing of this Act." The proposed amendment is to insert words so that the latter part of the paragraph would read "but the price of which was agreed upon or fixed before the passing of the Act." The definition of tenanted and untenanted land included in the Bill would include cases pending on the 18th December, 1932.
It is assumed by the Land Commission that altogether about £700,000 of land bonds will be required to finance the pending cases, but the figure of £1,000,000 has been inserted in the Bill as a round figure. It will provide a margin to meet any contingency which may possibly arise. As regards the Bill itself, I should like to make it clear that it deals only with bonds for pending cases, and that further legislation will be required to authorise the issue of bonds to complete land purchase in accordance with the Land Bill which is now before the Oireachtas. I do not think there is anything that is necessary for me to add. The Bill follows exactly the drafts of previous Bills with the exception, as I said before, that these land bonds will not be guaranteed by the British Government.