§ MR. KETTLE (Tyrone, E.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether in view of the fact that the finding of the Financial Relations Commission, 1894–6, has never been seriously disputed, that the Report, signed by all the Commissioners, declared the tax revenue 116 he will state what has been the proportion of direct to indirect taxation for the ten years last past in Ireland and in Great Britain, and also for the years 1807–17, or, if not available, for the earliest ten years after the Union.
§ MR. ASQUITHThe proportions during the last five years have been:— of Ireland to be about one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, while the relative taxable capacity of Ireland is very much smaller, and is not estimated by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth, and that the injustice admitted to exist in 1896 has been aggravated by the increase of taxation, he will take steps to redeem the pledge given by him in the House on 1st May, 1906, that he intended seriously, with the best will in the world, to investigate the whole of this expenditure and see how far it was possible to adjust on a fairer basis what lie admitted was the unsatisfactory and inequitable financial relations between the two portions of the kingdom. The hon. Member in putting the Question asked leave to explain that the first part of the Question was a quotation from the Report of the Financial Relations Commission, and the last part from a speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
§ *MR. SPEAKERIn that case, it probably ought not to be put at all, as quotations are not admitted.
§ MR. KETTLEsaid he was a new Member and unaware of. the practice. 117 As the inverted commas were not given, perhaps the Question might be considered in order.
§ MR. ASQUITHThe tax revenue of Ireland—which was declared by the Royal Commission in 1896 to be about one-eleventh of the tax revenue of Great Britain—amounted in 1905–6 to less than one-fourteenth of the tax revenue of Great Britain. So it is not correct to say that the increase of taxation since 1896 has altered the proportion to the disadvantage of Ireland. The whole question has received and is receiving careful consideration from my right hon. friend the Chief Secretary and myself.
§ MR. KETTLEasked whether the right hon. Gentleman proposed to take any steps to reform this system of colossal and automatic theft.
§ MR. ASQUITHsaid he thought the hon. Member was not quite justified in those very resounding epithets. The whole question was receiving careful consideration.
§ MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)asked whether the right hon. Gentleman was aware that not only were the Irish people smarting under a sense of injustice from excessive taxation, but that the English people also felt the shame of accepting an excessive contribution from the Cinderella of the Empire. Would not the right hon. Gentleman say something more definite?
§ MR. ASQUITHI have already said it is receiving careful, and I hope sympathetic, consideration.
§ MR. HAROLD COXasked the right hon. Gentleman whether any poor man paid in Ireland a higher rate of taxation than in England.
§ MR. ASQUITHNo, Sir.: