§ MR. JOHN ROCHE (Galway, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state if anything, and, if so, what, has been done towards the re-opening of the Parsonstown and Portumna line of railway?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Treasury are concerned with this railway—of which, I believe, all the rails were stolen in 1883—only in connection with the Public Works Loan Commissioners. As I stated on the 22nd July last year, the question 1371 of reconstructing the line is one for the Irish Government, not for the Commissioners. The Commissioners received some weeks ago from a Mr. Baldwin an offer to purchase what is left of the line, and this offer included an undertaking to re-open it. But as negotiations have been going on between the inhabitants of the district and the Great Southern and Western Railway, the offer has not yet been accepted.