Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act , 1939

1 Definitions.

1.—(1) The expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Local Government and Public Health;

the word “county” does not include a county borough;

the expression “the Act of 1898” means the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, as adapted by or under any subsequent enactment;

the expression “the Act of 1925” means the Local Government (Rates on Agricultural Land) Act, 1925 (No. 35 of 1925);

the expression “the Act of 1931” means the Local Government (Rates on Agricultural Land) Act, 1931 (No. 28 of 1931);

the expression “the Act of 1934-1935” means the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act, 1935 (No. 1 of 1935);

the expression “financial year” includes local financial year;

the word “valuation” when used without qualification means valuation under the Valuation Acts;

the expression “rating area”—

(a) when used in relation to the council of a county, means such county exclusive of any urban districts therein, and

(b) when used in relation to the council of an urban district, means such urban district;

the expression “agricultural land” does not include any land forming part of a railway or a canal nor any land in an urban district which was, at the passing of the Act of 1898, situate in an urban sanitary district, but subject to those exceptions and to any declaration made under the next following sub-section of this section, includes all land which is entered as land in the valuation lists under the Valuation Acts and is situate in the rating area of the council of a county or of an urban district;

the expression “tenement of agricultural land” means a rateable hereditament or tenement which consists wholly or partly of agricultural land;

save where the context otherwise requires, the expression “the agricultural grant” means the aggregate of the following grants in respect of the financial year in relation to which the expression is used, that is to say:—

(a) the agricultural grant referred to in section 48 of the Act of 1898, and

(b) the supplementary grant under the Act of 1925, and

(c) the additional supplementary grant under the Act of 1931, and

(d) the grant (if any) made by the Minister for Finance under this Act.

(2) The council of a county or of an urban district may, if they think proper, declare that the land within the curtilage of a specified dwellinghouse in the rating area of such council shall not be agricultural land for the purposes of this Act or for the purposes of the Act of 1898 as applied or affected by this Act, and thereupon such land shall not be agricultural land for those purposes.

2 Ascertainment of specified valuation.

2.—(1) The specified valuation for the purposes of this Act of any agricultural land in any particular county shall be ascertained in accordance with the following provisions, that is to say:—

(a) where a person is rated in respect of only one tenement of agricultural land in such county and the valuation under the, Valuation Acts of the agricultural land included in such tenement does not exceed twenty pounds, the specified valuation of such agricultural land shall be the valuation thereof under the Valuation Acts;

(b) where a person is rated in respect of two or more tenements of agricultural land in such county and the total amount of the valuations under the Valuation Acts of all the agricultural land included in such tenements does not exceed twenty pounds, the specified valuation of the agricultural land included in each such tenement shall be the valuation thereof under the Valuation Acts;

(c) where a person is rated under the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No. 4 of 1928), as owner in respect of two or more tenements of agricultural land in such county, the specified valuation of the agricultural land included in each such tenement shall be the valuation thereof under the Valuation Acts;

(d) where the Irish Land Commission is rated in respect of only one tenement of agricultural land in such county and the valuation under the Valuation Acts of the agricultural land included in such tenement exceeds twenty pounds, the specified valuation of such agricultural land shall be twenty pounds;

(e) where the Irish Land Commission is rated in respect of two or more tenements of agricultural land in such county and the total amount of the valuations under the Valuation Acts of all the agricultural land included in such tenements exceeds twenty pounds, the specified valuation of the agricultural land included in each such tenement shall be the valuation thereof under the Valuation Acts or twenty pounds, whichever is in each case the lesser;

(f) the following provision shall apply where, but only where, none of the foregoing paragraphs of this section applies, that is to say:—

(i) where a person is rated in respect of only one tenement of agricultural land in such county, the specified valuation of the agricultural land included in such tenement shall be twenty pounds, and

(ii) where a person is rated in respect of two or more tenements of agricultural land in such county, such tenements shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to form together a single tenement of agricultural land, and the specified valuation of the agricultural land included in such single tenement shall be twenty pounds.

(2) In this section the word “county” shall be construed as meaning the county inclusive of all urban districts which are situate in such county.

3 Tenements in occupation of a trustee.

3.—Where a person is rated in respect of two or more tenements of agricultural land situate in the same county and the Minister is satisfied that such person occupies one or more but not all of such tenements (in this section referred to as the trust holding or holdings) as trustee under a trust which does not apply to the others or other of such tenements and under which such person derives no benefit or a partial benefit only from such occupation, the Minister may, if he thinks it reasonable so to do having regard to all the circumstances of the case, declare the trust holding or holdings to be in separate occupation from the others or other of such tenements, and thereupon and thereafter so long as the said trust subsists in respect of the trust holding or holdings and no others or other of such tenements, this Act shall apply and have effect in relation to all such tenements as if the trust holding or holdings and the others or other of such tenements were respectively occupied by different persons.

4 Increase of the agricultural grant.

4.—(1) If moneys shall be provided by the Oireachtas for the purpose of an increase under this section of the agricultural grant in respect of any particular financial year, the Minister for Finance shall make, out of the moneys so provided, a grant in respect of that financial year equal in amount to the moneys so provided.

(2) Every (if any) grant made under this section by the Minister for Finance in respect of any particular financial year shall be made by the said Minister by way of increase (over and above the supplementary grant under the Act of 1925 and the additional supplementary grant under the Act of 1931) of the agricultural grant referred to in section 48 of the Act of 1898 in respect of that financial year, and shall be deemed for the purposes of all enactments for the time being in force to form part of the said agricultural grant referred to in the said section 48 and, in particular, shall be subject to the provisions of section 40 of the Irish Land Act, 1903.

(3) If and whenever moneys shall be provided by the Oireachtas for the purpose mentioned in the first sub-section of this section, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) if the amount of the moneys so provided is three hundred and seventy thousand pounds, there shall be paid to the council of every county, out of the agricultural grant for the increase of which such moneys are so provided, the sum stated in the second column of the Schedule to this Act opposite the name of the county where it appears in the first column of the said Schedule;

(b) if the amount of the moneys so provided is either more or less than three hundred and seventy thousand pounds, the Government shall by order divide and allocate the agricultural grant for the increase of which such moneys are so provided amongst the several counties, and there shall be paid to the council of every county out of the said agricultural grant the sum allocated by such order to such county.

(4) Every sum paid under the next preceding sub-section of this section to a council out of an agricultural grant shall be deemed to be the sum certified under section 48 of the Act of 1898 as payable to such council during the financial year in respect of which such agricultural grant is made, and accordingly every enactment which applies to the sum so certified as payable to a council (whether so applying before or after the issue of such sum) shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, apply to the sum payable to such council in pursuance of the said next preceding sub-section.

(5) If and whenever the agricultural grant in respect of any financial year is allocated by or under this Act, such allocation shall constitute and be a complete allocation of such agricultural grant and shall have effect notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act.

(6) The sum which is payable in any financial year under section 50 of the Act of 1898 as applied by section 26 of the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1930 (No. 27 of 1930), out of the agricultural grant to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the City of Dublin shall be sixteen hundred and eighty pounds, thirteen shillings, and sixpence.

(7) Every order made by the Government under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as conveniently may be after it is made.

5 Adjustment on alteration of boundaries, etc.

5.—(1) Whenever by virtue of an order made at any time after the passing of this Act a new urban district is constituted or the boundaries of an old urban district or of a borough which is not a county borough are extended and by virtue of such order any agricultural land in a county becomes included within the boundaries of such new urban district, old urban district, or borough (as the case may be), the portion of the agricultural grant in respect of any year commencing on the date of or at any time after the coming into operation of such order which under section 50 of the Act of 1898 is to be applied by the council of such county to the relief of such agricultural land from rates shall be such portion as the Minister shall fix in lieu of the sum mentioned in the said section 50.

(2) Whenever by virtue of an order made by the Minister at any time after the passing of this Act the boundaries of a county borough are so extended as to include in such county borough agricultural land which formed part of a county immediately before such extension, the portion of the agricultural grant in respect of any year commencing on the date of or at any time after the coming into operation of such order which under section 50 of the Act of 1898 (as applied by any other enactment) is payable to the council or corporation of such county borough shall be such portion as the Minister shall fix by such order in lieu of the sum mentioned in the said section 50, and the sum stated in the second column of the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of such county where it appears in the first column of the said Schedule shall, for the purpose of the application of the said Schedule to the agricultural grant in respect of any such financial year as aforesaid, be reduced by a sum equal to the portion of the agricultural grant so fixed by the Minister.

6 The primary allowance rate.

6.—In this Act the expression “the primary allowance rate” in relation to any county means the rate which was the primary allowance rate within the meaning and for the purposes of the Act of 1934-1935 in relation to that county.

7 The primary allowance.

7.—Every council of a county shall, in every financial year, make in accordance with this Act to every person rated in respect of a tenement of agricultural land (being a hereditament or tenement which consists wholly or partly of agricultural land situate within the rating area of such council) an allowance (in this Act referred to as the primary allowance) calculated—

(a) at the primary allowance rate, and

(b) on whichever of the following valuations is the lesser, that is to say, the specified valuation of the agricultural land contained in such tenement or the valuation of so much of such agricultural land as is situate within the rating area of such council.

8 The employment allowance.

8.—(1) In this section—

the expression “the qualifying period” means the period of twelve months ending on the 31st day of December next preceding the commencement of the financial year in relation to which the expression is used, and the expression “adult workman” means a male person who, at the commencement of the qualifying period in relation to which the expression is used, was not less than seventeen years of age nor more than seventy years of age and who was not and whose wife was not, at any time during the qualifying period, the rated occupier of agricultural land the valuation or the aggregate of the valuations of which during the qualifying period was equal to or greater than five pounds.

(2) Where—

(a) an adult workman was, or two or more adult workmen were each, during the whole of the qualifying period for any particular financial year, at work on any agritural land (in this sub-section referred to as the first-mentioned agricultural land) situate in the rating area of the council of a county; and

(b) the valuation in the said financial year of the first-mentioned agricultural land exceeds the specified valuation of the agricultural land contained in the tenement which contains the first-mentioned agricultural land; and

(c) the person who is rated for the service of the said financial year in respect of such tenement makes to such council a claim under and in accordance with this section for the allowance hereinafter mentioned, such council shall make, in accordance with this Act, to such person in respect of each such adult workman an allowance (in this Act referred to as the employment allowance) for the said financial year calculated at the primary allowance rate and on the amount by which the valuation (in the said financial year) of the first-mentioned agricultural land exceeds the specified valuation of the agricultural land contained in the tenement which contains the first-mentioned agricultural land, but subject to the overriding limitation that the amount on which the employment allowance is so to be calculated shall not in any case exceed the sum ascertained by multiplying the sum of twelve pounds ten shillings by the number of adult workmen who were at work on the first-mentioned agricultural land during the whole of the said qualifying period.

(3) Where two or more adult workmen were successively at work on any agricultural land during the qualifying period for any particular financial year and the respective periods during which such adult workmen were severally so at work are such that at all times during the said qualifying period at least one of such adult workmen was at work on such agricultural land and no such adult workman was so at work during the whole of the said qualifying period, then and in such case (whether any two or more of the said respective periods do or do not overlap) such two or more adult workmen shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to be one adult workman who was at work on such agricultural land during the whole of the said qualifying period.

(4) Where an adult workman was, during the whole of the qualifying period for any particular financial year, at work partly on agricultural land situate in the rating area of the council of a county and partly on agricultural land situate in another county and the same person is rated for the service of the said financial year in respect of all such agricultural land, such person may be granted employment allowance for the said financial year by such council in respect of such adult workman as if such adult workman had, during the whole of the said qualifying period, been at work exclusively on the agricultural land situate in the rating area of such council if, but only if, such person had not been granted employment allowance for the said financial year in respect of such adult workman by any other council.

(5) Every claim for employment allowance under this section for any financial year shall be made in writing to the council in whose rating area the agricultural land to which such claim relates is situate, and shall be in such form as such council shall require, and shall be sent to such council at such time and in such manner that it is received by such council on or before the 31st day of March in the next previous financial year or such later date (prior to the making of the rate in respect of which such employment allowance is claimed) as such council, with the consent of the Minister, shall fix.

(6) Every person who makes a claim for employment allowance under this section shall, in addition to the information and particulars contained in such claim, furnish to the council to whom such claim is made all such further or other information and particulars as shall be demanded of him by such council or any poor rate collector or other officer of such council for the purpose of checking the correctness and validity of such claim.

(7) It shall be the duty of every poor rate collector, if and when so required by the county council by whom he is employed, to examine and check every claim made to such council for employment allowance under this section in relation to agricultural land situate wholly or partly in the area for which he is such rate collector, and to make such inquiries as may be necessary for the purpose of such examination and checking, and to report to such council as to the correctness and validity of every such claim.

(8) Every doubt, question, and dispute which shall arise, in relation to a claim under this section for employment allowance, or as to whether a person was or was not an adult workman within the meaning of this section or as to whether a person was or was not at work on any particular land, or as to the period during which he was so at work shall be determined by the council to whom such claim is made, and the determination of such doubt, question, or dispute by such council shall be final and conclusive.

9 Application of the remainder of the agricultural grant.

9.—(1) In this section, the expression “the remaining valuation” in relation to a tenement of agricultural land (being a hereditament or tenement which consists wholly or partly of agricultural land (in this sub-section referred to as the first-mentioned agricultural land) situate in the rating area of the council of a county) means the amount (if any) by which the valuation of the first-mentioned agricultural land exceeds—