EXCISE PROSECUTIONS IN IRELAND. (Hansard, 25 July 1899)

THE EARL OF MAYO

My Lords, I beg to ask Her Majesty's Government if, in view of the inability of the Excise authorities in Ireland, owing to the admitted insufficiency of the staff, to properly administer the Excise laws relating to game and gun licences and game dealing licences, they will take steps to increase the staff, either permanently or temporarily, during the approaching shooting season; and whether they will issue special instructions to all Excise officers in Ireland to take the necessary steps to enable them in the course of the ensuing season to demand the exhibition of the requisite licence from every person in possession of a gun, or found pursuing game, or of persons dealing in game. With your Lordships' leave, I should like to make a few remarks with reference to this question. Two sessions ago I placed the same question on the Paper, and the answer I received with regard to the staff of officers who had to see that the game licences in Ireland were taken out, was to the effect that the staff was not large, and that, as each officer had to cover a large area, protection was more difficult. To show how serious this question is in Ireland, and how little the law has been carried out for the last eight years, I may mention that we have formed a Game Protection Association to put the law in force. We have appointed local inspectors and game watchers in numerous districts, and fifty cases were considered by the Committee and nineteen persons prosecuted. In several of these cases, two only of which were dismissed, very heavy fines were imposed. We now ask Her Majesty's Government if they will either increase the staff temporarily during the present shooting season, or issue special instructions to all the excise officers in Ireland. It would also help us considerably if the police were empowered to demand the exhibition of the requisite licence from every person in possession of a gun, or found pursuing game.

§ * LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

I ask your Lordships' permission to answer this question on behalf of the Lord Privy Seal, who has been obliged to go away. The quotation which the noble Lord has made from the speech of two sessions ago will hardly, I think, carry him quite the length he seems to imply. The staff is not admitted by the Treasury to be insufficient. It is, no doubt, the case that the staff is not relatively so large as in England and Scotland, and that the districts are, therefore, more extensive in area; but the officers have not so much duty to do, relatively to the population, as in England and Scotland, and therefore they can cover a larger area. The Chancellor of the Exchequer says he cannot possibly increase the staff for the special purpose indicated by the noble Earl. The object of the Gun and Game Licence Act was to raise the revenue by taxing a special species of luxury, and not to protect game. The Chancellor of the Exchequer does not think it reasonable to expect that the staff of Excise men should be increased solely for the purpose of effecting the latter object. With regard to the second part of the question, the Government have no reason to think that there is any remissness in Ireland in dealing with the offences referred to. So far as the information at the disposal of the Government goes, the number of detections and convictions in Ireland for the class of offence referred to by the noble Earl is large as compared with England and Scotland, but I am authorised to say that the Board of Inland Revenue will call the attention of their supervisors and officers to the matter, and will impress upon them the necessity of exercising the greatest vigilance against offenders. I may say, in regard to the remarks of the noble Earl, that if he will look at Return No. 223 of the present session of Parliament, he will see that the pledge to do what was possible to detect offences against the Gun and Game Laws has been adequately fulfilled, because no less than 116 prosecutions have arisen out of detections on the part of the Royal Irish Constabulary.