§ MR. T. D. SULLIVAN (Donegal, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the time originally fixed for the completion of the Stranorlar and Glenties Railway, County Donegal, has been over-passed by about two years; whether the extension of time granted by the Irish Privy Council is now nearly expired, and that the works are still in a very backward condition; whether the county surveyor has recently reported that the Glenties extension is making very slow progress, and the time of completion is very uncertain; whether he is aware that the people of the district which would be served by this line of railway have frequently complained of the dilatory conduct of the contractors for those works; whether, under those circumstances, he will take steps to cause those contractors to make more rapid progress with works intended by Parliament for the benefit of an impoverished district, and for which public money has been voted: and whether the Government intend to require that the line shall be completed at any particular time; and, if so, will he be so good as to name the time?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTThe statement in Paragraph I is correct, but the time originally fixed by Order in Council was not fixed with any prospect of the line being finished within the time. Though the progress of the line has not been rapid, I understand that the works are not, on the whole, in a very backward condition, and one of the chief causes of the delay has been the difficulties met with by the contractors in getting possession of the land. The 1103 Board of Works have never relaxed their efforts to expedite the construction of the line, but no doubt some small extension of time will have to be applied for. It is not, however, for me to say what the decision of the Irish Privy Council may be when the application is formally made.