The Taxation of Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 17, 27 April 1905, Page 15

The Taxation of Ireland

One oif tihe main planks of the devolution scheme proposed by Liord Dunraven anl his friends, is a reduction cf Uhe amount now spent an the government of Irelarid, wihich they say is the irnost expensive and unrepresentative of any countiry in Europe outside of Russia. The Dublin qorrespondent of the ' Manchester Guiardiian '' gives some particulars of the channels into which the £10,000,000 odd raised in Ireland for the year endeti. March SI, lu\e gone. The expenditure of the taxation of Ireland is made under six different headis or departments, each of which is quite distinct from the others, and easily measiured anc| un<3er stood. These six departments or divisions are —(1) Law and ipolfcie 1 ; (2) Difblin Casstle ; (3) education ; (4) local gcantte ; (5) Post Office ; (6) Imperial contribution. . I can give tthe acdurate figures for the expenditure under each of these six heads for the year ending March 31, 1903. I select that year because in it the taxation of Ireland, includ^g tihe corn tax, amounted to £10,205,50,0, 'being nearly the aame amount as that for the present financial year. 1. Law and Police.— This head includes pensions, salaries of judges, police, and what is Wnown as class 7. The cosit of this department was £2,212,500. 2. Dublin Castlet — This is ,used as a genuine name for an institution which comprises and controls seven subdepartmdnfe or sub-divisions— namely, the Lord Lieutenant, the Board of Works, the Local Government Boarid, surveys, collection of taxes, superannuation, Board of Agriculture. The cost of each of these sub-departments was as follows . Lord Lieutenant, £21,500 ; Board of Works, etc., £192,000 ; Local Government Boacd, etc. (class 2), £379,000; surveys, £83,000; collection of taxes, £246,000 ; superannuation, etc., £83,000. Tibtal cost of this department, £1,004,500. 3. Education.— This includes the three Queen's Colleges in Belfaist, Cork, and Galway, £21,000; and what is known as class 4, £1,345,000. Total cost of education, £1,366,000. 4. Local Gf ants.— This includes four subdivisions— F*cheqtier grants, £1,441,000 ; railways, £124,000 ; hospitals, etc., £17,000 ; rates on Governnivent property £48,000. Total, £1,630,000. 5* Post Office, the cost of which was £1,140,000. 6. Imperial contribution, £2.852,000. It will thus be seen that in the year ending March 31, 1003, t|ie gain to the Imperial Exchequer from Ireland wias £2,852,000. That is on the assumption tHat the police anicl all the other charges mentioned wore to be treated as local Irish charges. No Inducement to Economise. It is, piossibte that a Liberal Government may be in office before the enft of tne Qurremt financial yea/. Whenever such a change takes place it will be found that the question of Irish taxation must be at once grappled with if Ireland is not to be crushed out of existence. The moans, or method, or system', whatever it is tjo be, thereby a body of Irishmen will be empowered to limit and control and utilise taxation is the Alpha aoid Omega of Home Rule, or what is called the lriafo question. The third volume of Mr. Motley's ' Life of Gla'dsHone ' reveals to us the paramount im,pprtance which Parnell attached to the financial aspect of the Bill of 1886. As things stand at present Irishmen have no object in saving expense in any public department. If any item is salved or ciut oft in Ireland the saving only goes to swell the already too high Imperial contribution. Moreover, economy Hn one department may be no advantage to the people. For instance, Sir Ajntony MacDonnell has reduced the expenditure on police and law by £240,000 ; but this money, 'by a process of bookkeeping, is transferred to meet interest on the bonus of £12,000,000 given to the landlords ufider the recent Land Act. Thus the taxation remains the sanre ; the landlord^ get it instead of the police. 'So f,ar from there being any' inducement t,o economise, tihe common iflea is to keep an|d spend as much as possible in Ireland as any saving will only go tio the Treasury. i A Suggestion to Liberals. On the presetrrt rate of taxation, if an arrangement were made on the principle proposed by Gladstone— namely, let Ireland piay a. fixeS annual sum as her Imperial contribution to the British Treasury, say

42,5,00,000-tfce immediate result waulf he tflial thefce. would be £7,500,000 cm which to « a rry on the enfcifce Irish adiraiinistratibn. From the moment of making such an arrangement there wo,ifld be every inducement to economise ; every sajving would then be a saving fc 0 Iceland, not to the Treasury, as at present. The intelligent people in Ireland all know perfectly well that the administration of the wihole machinery -of Irish goveunment cpufd bo well carried on at one-half the present expenditure. There is not a public department the cost of whiAh would not <be_eut down 50 per cent, by any responsible body of Irishmen. i n otiher words, the '««£• sent taxation of Ireland could, with perfect regard to t lie interests land efficiency of the public sen ices, be reduced by 3| mullions. What is the Garrison ? It may be askeS why or how is it that Irish Unionists object to sirch a manifestly vital reform. Sometimes their (opposition is ascribed to religious antipathy sometimes to class and racial objections. The real caittse is nqfne of these, and it is a cause which it is all but impossible for Englialh people to understand. The Garrison means the army of salaried oflLoeholdqrs, pilaoe-hoiders, and pensioners who, by ttiiesmseJ\es<or their relatives or families, or friends, at 4Jhe. artsent miomtmt monopolise almost every official position in Ireland. The Garrison is, generally sneaking, Protestant, but )a Catholic will be admitted on the terms .of joining i|n hos-tility to his country. To their -credit it can be .said that the Catholic turncqats are not one In ten thousand, strong as are the baits and bribes held ?u lt 4. II th , em - •* am q . uite with fr the m.ark when I say that tne Garrison divide among themselves and their supporters at least £I,ooo^ooo >a year— that is onetenth of flhe taxation. Wealthy men like some 'of the Irish Unionist peers are the strongest and moat active supporters of the Garrison, not for the mjoney for themselves, but because they find this a handy means of retaining, a powerful political following, by what is in reality a gigantic system of bribery and corruption In other countries bribery and corruption assume the vuiear form -ol givinjg *nd receiving money ; * n Irelarid the methjod is Ifa keep up a Garrison who will s<hout for the Union aven though they see it is debasing an(d tuinrne their country. , f>