HC Deb 10 December 1902 vol 116 c663
MR. LONSDALE

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland: (1) whether his attention has been called to the difference in decisions of revising barristers in Belfast in regard to the right of sub-tenants of apartments in dwelling-houses to the householders' franchise; and (2) whether he will consider the advisability of introducing a Bill providing that where a tenant and his landlord reside in different apartments of one dwelling-house, the tenant, for the purposes of the Registration Act, shall be deemed to be a lodger, and the landlord an inhabitant householder.

MR. ATKINSON

The question whether a person who occupies a portion of a house for which the tenant is rated, and the remaining portion of which the tenant occupies himself as a lodger or a sub-tenant is, in a great degree, a question of fact. The question has recently been considered in the Court of Appeal on an appeal taken from the decision of one of the revising barristers in Belfast. This decision has not yet been reported, and until there is an opportunity of considering it in connection with the earlier authorities in Irish and English Courts, it would be premature to answer the question.

MR. TULLY

How does it affect the lodger vote in Rathmines?