§ MR SUMMERSI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Board of Works in Ireland, when applied to for a loan under the Public Works Loans (Tramways) (Ireland) Act by the Mitchelstown and Fermoy Railway Company, on 24th August, 1889, replied, under date of 27th August, 1889, asking for the nature of the security proposed; and whether, after having been informed of the nature of the said security, they wrote under date 10th September, 1889, saying they were precluded by a Treasury Minute from making such advances?
§ MR. JACKSONI am informed that the reply of the Board of Works, dated 14th September, stated that "the Treasury have decided to make no further loans on security of shares."
§ MR. CLANCYAre we distinctly to understand that up to the present date no grant has been sanctioned for any rail way scheme in Donegal under the Light Railways Act of last year?
§ MR. JACKSONIf the hon. Member's question means whether any formal assent of the Treasury has been given, my answer is in the negative.
§ MR. CLANCYAre the West Done gal Railway Company justified in announcing to the public that on the 26th of June next, at a special meeting of the Company, the confirmation will be pro posed of an agreement between them and the Treasury for the construction of a light railway from Donegal to Killybeg?
§ MR. JACKSONThere is nothing in consistent in that announcement with what I have stated. I think the railway company are taking a very sanguine view in assuming that the negotiations will be successful.
§ MR. CLANCYIs this the Barton-Price scheme?
§ MR. JACKSONI think my answer is in the affirmative.