§ MR. TULLY (Leitrim, South)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether Sub-section (b), Section 54, of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, entitles tenants of houses in towns, who paid half poor rate, to have their rents reduced by half the appropriate standard amount under the new rating system?
§ MR. J. ATKINSONThe meaning of the Sub-section mentioned is obvious. Its purport and effect were, I think, frequently explained during the 516 passage of the Irish Local Government Bill through Committee. Now that that Measure has become a statute of the realm and has passed into law I must respectfully decline to give, in answer to abstract questions, opinions upon the construction of any of its provisions.