LOCAL GOVERNMENT (IRELAND)—COLLECTION OF COUNTY CESS— CLARE CO. (Hansard, 4 December 1884)

§ MR. SEXTON

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 606 with reference to recent Resolutions of the magistrates and associated cess- payers of the barony of Ibricane (Clare), and of the Corofin, Killadzourt, and Limerick Board of Guardians of the poor, protesting against the action of the Clare Grand Jury in raising the poundage paid to barony constables for collection of County Cess from nine pence to a shilling, whilst the Poor Rate, a charge more difficult to collect, is collected all through Clare for a poundage of six pence, Whether the Government will urge the Grand Jury to act on the suggestion made in the several Resolutions, by advertising for tenders for the collection of County Cess, or whether, alternatively, the Judge of Assize will refuse to sanction a higher rate of poundage for the collection of County Cess in Clare than is paid for the collection of Poor Rate in that county; whether the increase in poundage lately voted by the Grand Jury exacts a tribute of £660 per annum from the cesspayers of the county, and the difference between the poundage for Poor Rate and County Cess is annually twice that sum; whether the Grand Jurors, in their capacity of ex officio Guardians, fix the poundage for the collection of the Poor Rate, to which they contribute, at six pence, whilst voting a shilling in the pound for the collection of County Cess, to which many of them do not contribute at all; whether the work of the barony constable is usually done by a deputy, at a remuneration of three pence or four pence in the pound; whether the barony constables are generally connections of Grand Jurors; and, whether, in one case recently, a Grand Juror having appointed a barony constable, a near relation of his own, to be his land agent, the Grand Jury immediately raised the constable's poundage from nine pence to a shilling?