§ MR. JOHN O'CONNOR (Kildare, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether it is the custom in estimating the amount of the expenditure upon Imperial services in Ireland to charge such expenditure against the Irish Revenue Account; and whether he is aware that the Royal Commission on Financial Relations reported that no portion of the Imperial expenditure could, in their view, be regarded as local or as a set-off to excessive taxation (page 25 of Report), and that to make a charge for Irish purposes would be to do what the constitution does not sanction (page 103); and, if so, will he state by what authority such a custom is sanctioned, and at what date such a custom began.
§ MR. McKENNAIn the Financial Relations Returns Ireland is not charged with the expenditure on any Imperial service. If the Hon. Member will refer to the Annual Returns he will find that the total expenditure is classified therein sunder the four heads of "English Services," "Scottish Services," "Irish Services," and "General Services." The last mentioned heading includes the charges for the National Debt, the Army and Navy, the Diplomatic, Consular, and Colonial Services, and other services which may be called "Imperial" in the sense that they are carried on for the benefit of the United Kingdom as a whole. No part of that expenditure is set down against Ireland. The passages which the Hon. Member quotes from the Report of the Financial Relations Commission do not occur in the General Report which was signed by eleven of the thirteen members, but in two Supplementary Reports, one
See (4) Debates, cliii., 1111.1434 of which was signed by five, and the other by three of the members. It would be impossible for His Majesty's Government to accept the view of those members that, in considering the burden of taxation upon Ireland, no regard is to be paid to the amount of the charge for purely Irish services which is defrayed out of State revenues. The Act of Union contemplated that the total expenditure of the United Kingdom should be "defrayed indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each country," subject only to such particular abatements and exemptions in Ireland or Scotland as circumstances might require. That is the system now in force. No constitutional rule is infringed if, in considering the financial position of Ireland, we take account of the fact that, since the date of the Union, it has become the practice to devote large sums out of the revenues raised by the State to the assistance of local authorities, to contributions to the cost of education, and to other services of local application; and that the sums thus supplied in the three countries are not in the same proportions as their contributions to revenue. That method has been followed with the sanction of this House since 1890, when a Select Committee was appointed to consider the equity of the financial relations of the three countries, with regard not only to their contributions to revenue, but also to their shares in expenditure.