§ MR. JOSEPH DEVLINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Select Committee on the Irish Valuation Acts recommended the abolition of the present system of hearing and deciding appeals from the Commissioner of Valuation, and the substitution therefor of a different tribunal, and that notwithstanding this recommendation the Commissioner is pressing the hearing of the appeals under the system which the Select Committee declared to be unsatisfactory; and, if so, whether he proposes to introduce legislation on the lines laid down in the Select Committee's Report; and whether he will make provision for the further suspension of the operation of the revaluation of the city of Belfast until such time as Parliament has been afforded an opportunity of giving effect to the recommendations of the Committee.
§ MR. WYNDHAMIt is not possible to suspend the hearing of the appeals even if it were desirable to introduce legislation. The new valuation, I have already explained, cannot come into operation until the year 1905. The decisions of Sir John Barton, which have been mainly objected to, are those in which he has, in respect to the valuation of licensed premises, adopted the principle recommended by the Royal Commission on Local Taxation, and the Select Committee on Irish Valuation Acts. The latter Committee did not recommend the abolition of the present system of hearing and deciding appeals from the Commissioner of Valuation. On the contrary, the Committee stated it was difficult to suggest anything better. The Committee held that an appeal as at present should continue to the Recorders or County Court Judges, with whom it was recommended two assessors should be associated.