The purpose of this Bill is to maintain the supply of land bonds for the financing of the land reform programme.
Senators will, no doubt, be well aware that a very great part of the acquisition and resumption programme of the Land Commission is financed by means of land bonds created from time to time by the Minister for Finance. The basic authority for these creations is section 6 (1) of the Land Bond Act, 1934 and at that time it was laid down that the Minister could not create more than a grand total of £10 million in Bonds. This limit was raised to £15 million by an amendment inserted in the Land Bond Act, 1934 by section 7 of the Land Act, 1953.
The Land Bill, 1963, which has not yet come before the Senate contains a proposal to raise the overall limit by a further £5 million but that Bill is making such slow progress through the legislature that a situation has arisen in which the existing supply of land bonds will, almost certainly, run out before the Bill is enacted. Consequently, the Government have thought it best to segregate the Land Bond provision and make a special two-section Bill of it.
Since that decision was taken, however, I have given further consideration to the steady rise in the price of land and also to the very lively tempo of the Land Commission's current work in the field of land acquisition and I have come to the conclusion that £5 million is not an adequate increase in the financial supply. Accordingly, I now propose to provide for an increase of £10 million over all. This should keep the Land Commission supplied for a reasonably long period, during which I expect to see them make a very big impact on the remaining congestion in the country.
Land bonds finance on a substantial scale is vital to our land reform programme. I thrust, therefore, that the Senators will agree to the immediate passage of this Bill so that the Land Commission's planned acquisition target for the immediate future can be achieved and the completion of pending voluntary purchase dealings finalised.