§ MR. JOHN REDMONDTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the fact that a number of Parliamentary and Local Government Board electors are annually disfranchised by reason of the non-payment of poor rates within the statutory period for payment; whether he is aware that the poor rate is now annually struck by the county council about the month of May in each year, and that such rate, in order to qualify for the franchise, must be paid on or before the 1st July of the following year, and that the collectors of poor rate under the Orders made by the Local Government Board must now lodge the full amounts of the rates within fixed periods; whether the disfranchisement referred to arises from the fact that the rate collectors in numerous cases fail to require payment from the occupiers until after the time has lapsed, in other words, until after the 1st July of the following year; and, if so, whether he will consider the advisability of the Order of the Local Government Board requiring that the rate collectors should finally close their accounts and proceed for all recoverable rates before the next rate is made, in order that the ratepayers concerned should not be disqualified by the action of the rate collector.
§ (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Local Government Board have no information as to the first part of the Question. The poor rate is now usually struck in the months of April and May, and the latest date for paying the rate, in order to be qualified for the franchise, is the 1st July of the following year. The ratepayer has, therefore, over a year in which to pay his rates before he can be disfranchised. One poor rate is made for the whole of the year, but this may be collected in two moieties. Under the Public Bodies Order the poor rate collectors are required to close their collections at the end of each half-year, namely, on 30th September and 31st March. It is the practice of county councils to insist that the poor rate collectors shall close the year's collection on 31st March in each year, and in order to be able to lodge the full amount of their warrants at that date it is necessary that every effort should be made by the collectors by means of summons and distress to collect the rate from the occupiers. Provision is made under the Public Bodies Order for refunding to collectors under prescribed conditions the amount of rates which they have failed to recover for sufficient reason. The latter recoverable rates are carried forward to the next year's collection for recovery as arrears with the first moiety of the current year. It therefore follows that if the county and urban district councils comply with the prescribed requirements the rate collectors should have no difficulty in sending out the demands in the month of May, in which case persons in arrears have ample time to pay the rates in time to prevent disfranchisement. As a matter of fact less than one per cent, of the rate is carried forward in each year. In the circumstances a new Order, such as is suggested in the Question, appears to be unnecessary.