This Bill is merely to amend certain clauses in the Agriculture Act, 1931. Sub-section (1) of Section 36 of that Act provides that a county council must collect a rate of 2d. in the £ for the benefit of the county committee of agriculture, and may collect another 1d. in the £, if the county committee can make a good case for it. This Bill proposes to give the county council power to collect an extra 2d., instead of an extra 1d., if they so think fit. A number of the county councils have reached the limit, that is they are collecting the mandatory 2d. and also the 1d. which they are permitted to collect, and some of them, I feel, will avail of the opportunity to collect a little more if they have authority to do so. In fact, some of the county committees are not able to carry on all the activities which they would like to carry on on the present income. I need not enumerate for Senators what these activities are. They come under the heading of education and, to a certain extent, of subsidies on production of various kinds, such as assisting the poultry industry and the pig industry in congested districts and also to some extent the growing of vegetables. On the educational side, there are the services of the instructors in agriculture and horticulture, bee-keeping, poultry-keeping and butter-making. They also give some scholarships to farmers' sons and daughters which are tenable at the approved agricultural institutions.
Since the enactment of the Agriculture Act, 1931, all but one of the county committees have succeeded in obtaining from the county councils an agricultural rate higher than the minimum of 2d. There are nine now on the maximum, that is, they are getting the produce of a 3d. rate from the county councils, and some at least of these county committees are anxious to get more. At present, from the central Exchequer, each county committee gets £1 for every £1 collected from the county council and last year the amount paid by the Exchequer was something like £96,000. If every county committee were to get the full rate allowed by this Bill, they would be in receipt of £145,000 from the county councils, and the Minister for Finance has agreed to continue the £1 for £1 principle. If they do reach this maximum of £145,000, a similar sum will also be contributed by the central Exchequer.
There are two other items dealt with in the Bill. There is a special grant amounting to £6,000 which was administered by my Department in a more or less arbitrary way. It was provided for the benefit of the poorer counties and these poorer counties got a bigger slice than some of the better-off counties. In fact some of the better-off counties got none of it. We propose to continue that special grant for some time, at least until they all reach the maximum. There has also been an additional grant, over the last few years, of £50,000 for lime subsidies to the county committees. That is somewhat abnormal. It will be continued as long as the abnormal circumstances are there in the matter of artificial manures, but if the emergency had passed away and we were back again to the stage where we could get unlimited supplies of artificial manures it is possible that that particular grant of £50,000, which we are now providing for lime, might be reduced. As long, however, as the emergency lasts the Minister for Finance will not refuse to contribute in the three ways indicated: (1) £1 for every £1 raised by the county councils; (2) to continue to give the £6,000 by way of a special grant for distribution amongst the poorer counties; and (3) to continue to give this rather high amount for lime subsidies.
