HC Deb 23 February 1897 vol 46 cc978-9
MR. BERNARD MOLLOY (King's Co., Birr)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he is aware that the mail train postal service from this country and from Dublin to Birr, Roscrea, and Nenagh has not been altered for some 40 years, and that the existing arrangements are such as to cause the greatest inconvenience to a district comprising about 70,000 inhabitants; and that owing to the present mail arrangements the practical effect is that for a distance of 60 miles from Dublin it requires two days for sending a letter and receiving a reply over that short distance; whether the claims made by the inhabitants of this district, and contained in a, petition presented to the Postmaster General last July, will be satisfied before the conclusion of any new terms with the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, and before the issue of any new time table; whether he will enforce the expenditure of some portion of the contract sum with the railway for the purpose of improving the railway connections with the above-named districts; and whether the existing post-offices of Birr, Roscrea, and Nenagh are now self-supporting?

MR. HANBURY

In the short notice which the hon. Member has given of his Question, the Postmaster General has not been able to ascertain whether the postal service from this country and from Dublin to Birr, Roscrea, and Nenagh has or has not been altered for 40 years. He is not aware that the existing arrangements cause the greatest inconvenience to the district, and it certainly is not the fact that in every case it requires two days for sending a letter and receiving a reply to and from Dublin. The difficulty in serving these places is that it would not be desirable to add a stop at Ballybrophy to the time table of the Cork Day Mail, and that hi consequence the Day Mail for Roscrea, Nenagh, and Birr is necessarily forwarded by the succeeding train. Whether any other arrangement can be made at a cost which would be justified will be considered in connection with the revision which is now engaging the attention of the Department. There has been no time to inquire whether the post offices at Birr, Nenagh, and Roscrea are self-supporting.