Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1960 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1958 - 1959

APPENDIX VI.

SUPPLEMENTARY AGRICULTURAL GRANTS: EMPLOYMENT ALLOWANCE.

An Cléireach,

An Choiste um Chuntais Phoiblí.

When the Vote for Supplementary Agricultural Grants, 1958-59, was being discussed at the proceedings of the Committee of Public Accounts on 18 November, 1959, I undertook to furnish a note about the implementation by local authorities of the “employment allowance” provisions affecting relief from rates on agricultural land.

The Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Acts prescribe that claims for employment allowance in respect of any financial year should be made prior to the 15th October in that financial year. While County Councils therefore have no option but to disallow late claims, the qualifying date as determined by the Oireachtas is nevertheless sufficiently late in the financial year to give farmers ample time within which to make claims. Indeed, prior to 1946-47 the qualifying date was 31st March in the preceding financial year.

The employment allowance of up to £17 p.a. is given to rated occupiers of agricultural land for each workman between the ages of 17 and 70 years at work on the holding during the whole of the previous calendar year. A man must have been in “continuous employment” for the full calendar year to enable the ratepayer to claim the employment allowance. There is, however, a provision that if two or more men are successively at work on a holding or are employed in such a way that at all times during the calendar year there is one man at work, such workmen may be regarded as one man at work in the qualifying period.

Neither the Minister for Finance nor the Minister for Local Government has any power or appellate jurisdiction in regard to the admission of individual claims for employment allowances. A decision as to the granting of such claims is a matter for the County Council alone: under section 8 (8) of the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act, 1939, the decision of the County Council on any doubt, question or dispute in relation to a claim shall be final and conclusive.

The intention of the Acts is that there should be no break in continuity of employment and that intermittent or casual employment should not suffice to qualify for the allowance. At the same time, it would clearly be unreasonable to expect that a worker should be “at work” for every day of the qualifying period. Certain breaks in employment are sometimes unavoidable and on 21st May, 1959, during his second reading speech in the Dáil on the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Bill, 1959, the Minister for Local Government said with reference to this question—

“A matter which has been raised in discussions in previous Bills is the question of broken time. It has been represented that a too rigid interpretation of the provisions of the law in regard to the continuity of employment might result in hardship to individual farmers especially where, for instance, a break occurs through no fault of the employer. I fully appreciate the difficulties of farmers in this matter. I realise that it is not always possible for a farmer to replace immediately an employee who has left without giving notice, and the breaks in employment often occur through illness. I think, however, that local authorities may be relied on to use their discretion in cases of this kind. I know that some of them allow an employment allowance claim where the length of the break or the total length of the breaks in the employment in any year is not greater than one month. I think that is a very reasonable attitude to adopt.…” (Cols. 315-316 of relevant debates.)

The Minister for Local Government has also indicated to any local authorities who have approached him on the subject that he sees no objection to an employment allowance being granted where the break in employment in any year is not greater than one month. As regards the position in Co. Kerry, it is understood that the County Manager indicated in August, 1959 that the Kerry County Council would in future have regard to the Minister’s statement in the Dáil when dealing with employment allowance claims.

(Signed) T. K. WHITAKER,