§ MR. HEALYasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If he will state the present intentions of the Government as to the Bann Navigation question, and is he aware that while the works are most injurious to drainage and ruinous to riverside farmers, the navigation which they were constructed to facilitate is practically non-existent, and that an existing railway amply provides for freight and carriage in the district?
§ MR. HIBBERTThe Government has given a great deal of attention to this question, and are fully alive to the grievances of the riparian occupiers. I recently stated, in reply to my hon. Friend the senior Member for the county of Derry (Sir Thomas M'Clure), that we are considering what can be done to meet the case, and I hope we shall shortly be able to arrive at a conclusion. But it is right to say that the Government have no power to remove the navigation works, however useless they may think them, without legislation.
§ MR. HEALYMay I ask the hon. Gentleman whether, in view of the fact that the Solicitor General for Ireland represents the county in question, steps will be taken to improve the drainage of these districts before the next General Election?
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORI should like to put the same Question with respect to the Shannon and Barrow.
§ MR. HIBBERTThe matter is being inquired into.