§ CAPTAIN O'BEIRNEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If it is the intention of Government that the inquiry to be held during the Recess into the administration and constitution of the Board of Works is to include within its 1660 scope the present useless condition of the Ballinamore and Ulster Canals, with a view to suggesting a remedy and prevent the final and complete loss of the large sums of public money spent on their construction—taking into consideration the resolutions passed by the Fermanagh Grand Jury at the March and July Assizes of 1877, and by the trustees from the counties of Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, and Roscommon, in September 1875?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, the inquiry which my hon. Friend the Secretary to the Treasury undertook to hold was an inquiry into the administration and constitution of the Board of Public Works in Ireland. I do not see how it will be possible to combine an inquiry into the constitution of a Department with one into the history and condition of a canal.