HC Deb 13 March 1890 vol 342 cc693-4
MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the Commissioners under the Light Railways Act of 1889, at the inquiry held at Carndonagh in the County of Donegal, refused to hear evidence in favour of a line of railway from Londonderry to Carndonagh and Moville, on the ground that it was not scheduled, and that they could only take evidence with regard to a line or lines between the scheduled termini of Carndonagh and Buncrana; whether such refusal was not a violation of the provisions of the Act and the prescribed procedure there under, with the result that the promoters of the line from Derry to Carndonagh and Moville were prevented from showing the superior advantages of such proposed line over the scheduled line from Carndonagh to Buncrana; whether all the local witnesses examined in favour of the scheduled line admitted in cross examination that the direct line from Carndonagh to Londonderry would be preferable to the line by Buncrana; and whether the proposed line from Londonderry to Carndonagh and Moville will be now scheduled; and, pending the investigation into the merits thereof, the consideration of the scheduled line from Carndonagh to Buncrana will be postponed?

* MR. JACKSON

In reply to paragraphs one and two of the hon. Member's question, I have to state that the Inspectors on the first day of the inquiry declined to receive the evidence in question under a misapprehension. The Board of Works* attention having been called to this ruling they instructed the Inspectors to receive the evidence, and they did so at their subsequent sitting. In reference to paragraph three, considerable evidence was given in favour of the Moville Line; and as to paragraph four, the Board of Works are required by statute to make a Report on the Buncrana and Carndonagh Line, which was scheduled in the Order in Council in November last, and their Report will be brought before the Grand Jury, with whom it rests either to accept or reject the line. The Moville and Carndonagh Line was not scheduled in the Order in Council, and cannot come before the Grand Jury under the Act of 1889.