§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will say how what is called the true revenue of Ireland is now calculated; how the calculation is affected, if at all, by the fact that most of the money spent by the great spending Departments circulates among the population in Great Britain, and not in Ireland; and, remembering the excessive taxation of Ireland disclosed by the Financial Relations Commission, whether he can see his way to earmark the increase imposed by 2116 the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, and the growing amount thereof for the next ten years, for some specific Irish purpose, such as the promotion of suitable industries or the reduction of the debts due upon labourers' cottages and plots?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe calculation is made in the manner shown in the annual Financial Relations Return. The consideration mentioned in the second part of the question—whatever weight may be attached to it as regards the past—no longer arises now that the total revenue contributed by Ireland is considerably less than Irish local expenditure. The circumstances—more particularly since the introduction of old age pensions—are now wholly different from what they were at the time of the Report of the Financial Relations Commission, and, as my right hon. Friend has shown on several occasions, more than the whole of the revenue derived from Ireland by the additional taxation imposed by the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, will be devoted to specific Irish purposes.