§ MR. SHEEI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that a Royal Commission in 1836 declared in favour of the view that Irish railways should be worked as one system and under one management; and whether, having regard to the multitude of railway systems and railway directors in Ireland, and the disastrous effect of high 298 railway rates on an agricultural country, the Government will consider the advisability of asking for the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee to inquire whether the purchase and management of Irish railways by the State is desirable and practicable?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURYMy right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary requests me to say that the Government do not propose to appoint a further Royal Commission on the suggested State purchase of Irish railways. That principle was condemned by a Royal Commission appointed in 1865, and again by another Royal Commission appointed in 1886. The condition of affairs upon which those decisions were based does not seem subsequently to have been altered.