HC Deb 08 April 1895 vol 32 cc1139-40
SIR T. ESMONDE

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he is yet in a position to give any information as to the intention of the Treasury with reference to the Resolution passed by the County Kerry Grand Jury concerning the Tralee and Dingle Railway?

SIR JOHN HIBBERT

The Grand Jury's Resolution asks for a free grant of £15,000, but my hon. Friend will remember that when the question of a loan for the improvement of the line was under discussion a year ago, the Treasury stated that such a question could not be entertained in the absence of new and satisfactory arrangements for the working of the line. These conditions not having yet been fulfilled by the Grand Jury, I fear that I am not in a position at present to consider the question of a loan. A free grant is open to far more serious difficulties, and I need not remind my hon. Friend that when the exceptional compassionate grant of £2,500 was made last year, it was made on the express condition that it represented the final concession of the Government.