§ MR. HUGH LAW (Donegal, W.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the directors of the Lough Swilly Railway Company have made charges against the Board of Works in respect both of certain alleged departures from specification by the contractors employed to make the Burtonport extension, and also of the character and amount of the rolling stock provided; and whether, in view of all the circumstances, the Treasury will now agree to grant an inquiry into the whole matter.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he has received a letter from Mr. Alexander Spense, secretary to the Londonderry, Lough Swilly, and Letterkenny Railway, urging on behalf of the board of directors that, in accordance with the views taken by the ratepayers, the Donegal County Council and the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce which have passed resolutions in favour of an inquiry, the charges made by the board of these railways against the Board of Works with reference to the Burton-port Railway and the expenditure of public money in reference thereto, and having regard to their granting to the subject of inquiry by a competent and impartial tribunal; and, if so, what reply has been given to that letter.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) After very full and repeated consideration of all the circumstances of this case, and in view of the terms of the Order in Council and the agreement with the Treasury for the construction, etc., of 1345 the line, the Treasury has decided that it would not be justified in referring the matter to an outside tribunal, and: I am so informing Mr. Spence in reply to his letter referred to.