asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he will consider the introduction of proposals for legislation whereby the Agricultural Grant will be increased so that agricultural holdings will be free of rates and that the money necessary for this purpose should be raised by way of increased taxation, or whether he will prescribe rules whereby the existing Agricultural Grant should be credited to councils according to the amount of land tilled in their areas, and that finally the grants credited to each council should be used towards the relief of rates in the case of holdings, not less than twenty-five per cent. of which are tilled.

The proposals which the Deputy refers to contain so many implications and raise so many important issues that it would obviously be impossible for me to deal with them at this stage by way of question and answer.