§ MR. KENDAL O'BRIEN (Tipperary, Mid.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Inland Revenue officer at Dublin has applied to the Roscrea No. 1 Rural District Council for payment of loan capital duty, at the rate of 2s. 6d. per cent. on a recent loan obtained by the council from the Irish Land Commission, under the Labourers Acts; will he say if this is the first application of the kind in Ireland, and if it is proposed to assess this duty on all future loans under the Acts mentioned; whether he is aware that there are 25,000 cottages to be built during the current year in Ireland, under improvement schemes now in the course of preparation; that each cottage will cost about £200; and that the loan capital duty (if assessed) will entail an unexpected expenditure, under these Acts, of more than £6,000 in respect of this duty alone; and, having regard to the provisions of the Labourers Act of last session, providing for the remission of stamp duty, he will arrange that this duty will not be assessed.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) A claim for loan capital duty has been made as described. It is one of several, twenty-four in all, of which eighteen have been settled by recognition of the claim by the district councils concerned. Section 23 of The Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, which exempts from stamp duty agreements and certain other instruments, has no application to loans effected by district councils for purposes of the Act; and, under the law as it stands, neither the Board of Inland Revenue nor the Treasury has power to refrain from assessing the loan capital duty.