§ MR. BOLAND (Kerry, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland can he state whether any agreement was entered into between the Clyde Shipping Company, the Russell Steamer Company, and the Great Southern and Western Railway, or between any two of them, previous to the withdrawal of the Clyde Shipping Company from the south-west coast service; if so, was the Congested Districts Board aware of the nature of this agreement; is he aware that all new rates quoted for Sneem by the railway company are in excess of those previously quoted by the Clyde Shipping Company, and in the case of some classes of goods show an increase of from 20 to 50 per cent., as, for example, in the case of timber, petroleum, and cement; whether his attention has been called to the inadequacy of the proposed service of carts from Kenmare, seeing that the Clyde Shipping Company used to carry fifteen tons per week on an average to Sneem; and whether he proposes to secure that the railway rates will be reduced in such a way that no additional charge will fall on the people of the Sneem district in consequence of the withdrawal of the Clyde Shipping Company.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Board have no knowledge of any such agreement. It is the case that the railway rates are higher than the steamer rates were, but this is almost invariably the case. The Board understand that, even while the subsidy to the Clyde Shipping Company was being paid by them, many Sneem traders, being dissatisfied with the irregularity of delivery and the 298 absence of storage, had their goods conveyed by rail to Kenmare and carted them thence at their own expense. The Board have now secured from the railway company through rates, with a regular delivery and storage at Sneem, at a great reduction on the former railway rates. There has been no time, as yet, to test the adequacy of the service of carts. I do not see that the railway company can properly be further pressed in the matter.