Government of Ireland Act 1920

23 Irish contribution to Imperial expenditure

(1) Ireland shall in each year make a contribution towards the Imperial liabilities and expenditure mentioned in the Sixth Schedule to this Act.

(2) The amount of the contribution shall, in each year until the end of the second financial year after the appointed day, be, subject as hereinafter provided, a sum calculated at the rate of eighteen million pounds a year, and after the end of the said second financial year shall in each financial year be such proportion as is hereinafter mentioned of the amount which the Joint Exchequer Board certify to have been the amount for the preceding financial year of the said liabilities and expenditure.

(3) The proportion of Imperial liabilities and expenditure to be so contributed shall be such as the Joint Exchequer Board may, having regard to the relative taxable capacities of Ireland and the United Kingdom, determine to be just; but the proportion so determined shall be subject to revision by the Joint Exchequer Board at the end of the fifth financial year after the date when it was first so determined and at the end of every fifth financial year thereafter.

(4) The said contribution shall be apportioned as between Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland in the following manner, that is to say:—

(a) So long as the contribution remains at the rate of eighteen million pounds a year, fifty-six per centum thereof shall be apportioned to Southern Ireland and forty-four per centum thereof to Northern Ireland:

(b) Thereafter such part shall be apportioned to Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively as the Joint Exchequer Board may determine to correspond to their relative taxable capacities at the time when the proportion of Imperial liabilities and expenditure to be contributed is fixed.

(5) If the Joint Exchequer Board at any time after the end of the said second financial year are of opinion that the said contribution for the first or second financial year ought justly to have been some less sum than eighteen million pounds, or ought to have been apportioned as between Southern and Northern Ireland otherwise than in the manner hereinbefore provided, they shall certify accordingly and direct, as the case requires, either that an amount equal to the difference between the contribution made and that less sum shall be credited to the Exchequers of Southern and Northern Ireland in the proportions in which the contribution was made by them, or that the contribution shall be treated as having been apportioned between Southern and Northern Ireland in such manner as may be specified in the certificates, and such adjustments as are necessary for the purpose of giving effect to any direction under this section may be made by the Board in any payments to be subsequently made to those Exchequers on account of the Irish residuary share of reserved taxes