§ MR. O'SHEE (Waterford, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether in reference to the sum of £93,000, which the Great Southern and Western Railway Company of Ireland repaid to the Treasury rather than carry out the undertaking to construct the Fermoy to Cork direct hue, he will recommend that said sum be applied to relieve the ratepayers of the county and city of Waterford from the annual charge of £4,000 still paid by them in respect of the guarantee for the County 492 Waterford Railway, on which such sum of £93,000 was originally lent by the Treasury; is he aware that the ratepayers of the county and city of Water-lord have paid nearly £400,000 since 1874 on foot of the guarantee for the railway, and that the Waterford County Council recently passed a resolution asking that the grant of the £93,000, made by the Treasury for railway development in 1898 should be applied to relieve the ratepayers, since there is no prospect' of its being applied in the way then intended for their benefit and the benefit of the South of Ireland generally.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH, Derbyshire, W.)It is not correct to say that the sum of £93,000 was repaid by the Great Southern and Western Company of Ireland to the Treasury rather than carry out the undertaking to construct the Fermoy to Cork direct line. The £93,000 was paid by the Fishguard Company to the Treasury in respect of the sale of the Treasury interests in the Waterford, Dungarvan, and Lismore Railway, and in discharge of the principal and interest on the Board of Works loan. The construction of the Fermoy to Cork line and of the Rosslare to Waterford line was an obligation undertaken by the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours Company under the Treasury agreement scheduled to the Company's Act of 1898, in consideration of which the Treasury-agreed to ask Parliament, if the obligation were duly fulfilled, to vote the sum of £93,000 for repayment to the Fishguard Company. The obligation as regards the Cork and Fermoy line has not been carried out. If, however, Parliament should sanction (as it was asked to do by a Bill introduced by the Fishguard Company in 1898) the substitution of another scheme for that of the direct line from Fermoy to Cork, the Treasury would have to consider whether the £93 000 should be repaid in that event also. But the £93,000 is only a loan repaid, and there is no power to apply it to relieve county rates. I may add that the amount paid in the past under the county guarantee is overstated by about £100,000.