HC Deb 18 July 1879 vol 248 cc758-9
MAJOR NOLAN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If certain properties have been exempted from the police tax imposed on districts in Connemara, and, if so, have these exemptions tended to raise the tax levied on other proprietors and tenants?

MR. J. LOWTHER

The object which it is sought to attain by the imposition of a special police tax is to reach through their pockets those persons who are the aiders and abettors of, or sympathizers with, the outrages which have made it necessary to employ an additional force. In instances, however, in which it is manifest that no complicity or sympathy exists, such, for instance, as in the case of persons who have been themselves the object of attack or threats, it is usual to grant exemptions. In reference to the particular case of Connemara, some slight exemptions have been made in the direction I have indicated. Such exemptions made since the imposition of the tax will not increase its incidence in the case of the other parties who are liable, though it would be otherwise if the levy had not been already made. Two extra drafts of police have been charged for; two others will not be charged for, unless further outrage occurs.

MR. PARNELL

wished to know by what means the right hon. Gentleman ascertained that certain occupiers were wholly guiltless, and that certain others were not guilty for the purposes of the tax?

MR. BIGGAR

also wished to inquire in what way the right hon. Gentleman discovered who were sympathizers and who were not?

MR. J. LOWTHER

The question of the hon. Gentlemen has inverted the order of things. I would observe that the exemptions were the exception and the imposition of the tax the rule. In certain cases, where it is manifest that parties are not in any way responsible—as, for instance, the objects of attack, and others in the same category—they are exempted from contributing to the tax. The exemptions, I will add, are made on the report of the authorities employed in the locality.

MR. CALLAN

asked, under what Act the Government was authorized to make exemptions, and also whether Grand Juries had any power in the matter?

MR. J. LOWTHER

, in reply, said, that the exemptions were made under the Peace Preservation Act; but he was not prepared to give the section.