§ MR. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that the site contemplated for the new post office in Clones belongs to the wife of the present postmaster, and is situate in a steep part of the Diamond; also that the Town Commissioners did not approve of the site, but merely recommended that the site should be in a central position; whether the postmaster was shown or informed of the contents of communications addressed to the Department stating on what terms other owners of property in Clones were prepared to sell or lease premises for the purposes required; whether he is aware steps have been taken by the inhabitants of Clones to protest against the site in question being selected; whether, when the post office surveyor visited the several premises offered to the Department, he was on each occasion accompanied by the postmaster, and whether letters addressed by two of the Clones Town Commissioners to the Secretary of the Dublin Post Office, protesting against the choosing of the site in question, were forwarded or their contents made known to the Clones postmaster; and whether he will cause an inquiry to be made into the entire matter of selecting a site for the proposed new office, so as to meet with the approval of the general body of the inhabitants of Clones?
THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURT,) PrestonThe answer to the first sentence of the first paragraph is "Yes," to the second "No." On the contrary, the Town Commissioners are unanimously in favour of the site "as being the most Suitable and central in the town." The answer to the second, third, and fourth paragraphs is in the affirmative. A decision has not yet been finally given, and the matter is therefore still open to further inquiry if a better scheme can be suggested within the limits of expense which the comparatively small amount of the 22 Post Office business at Clones will warrant.
§ MR. MACALEESEThe Town Commissioners were not unanimous.