§ MR. FFRENCH (Wexford, S.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the correspondence which passed between the Great Southern and Western Railway Company of Ireland and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland upon the subject of providing gaslight buoys within two miles of Rosslare Harbour, where the route lies between Greenore Point and the tail of the South Bank, through a short channel over half a mile in width; whether oil-lighted buoys were tried in this roadstead and failed; whether he is aware that similar gas-lighted buoys have been placed for a longer distance on the opposite side of the Irish Channel at Fishguard; can he state why a style of lighting on one side of the same company's route cannot be maintained on the other; and whether, as the total expenditure for this work would only amount to £7,000 for erection and £200 per annum for maintenance, he will direct, in the interests of safe-guarding human life and giving facilities for the development of the Rosslare and Fishguard route to England, that this sum will be placed upon the next Lighthouse Estimates with a view to having these buoys erected immediately.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEThe Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland has favoured me with copies of the letters addressed to him on this subject by the Great Southern and Western Railway Company. I understand that some six years ago an automatic lighted and whistling buoy was tried on the South Shear of Rosslare and failed. As regards the opposite side of the Irish Channel the Board of Trade sanctioned the erection of a lighthouse at Strumble Head, but this was considered desirable in the interests of general navigation, and the special use likely to be made of it by the steamers running between Fishguard and 1371 Rosslare was recognised by the Great Western Railway Company, who are contributing £2,000 towards the cost. I am not aware of any gas lighted buoys having been placed at the expense of the General Lighthouse Fund off Fishguard. A proposal to place such buoys off Rosslare Harbour was recently made by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, but neither the Trinity House nor my own advisers are of opinion that they are required in the interests of general navigation; and, in these circumstances, I am not prepared to sanction the placing of gas lighted buoys here at the expense of the General Lighthouse Fund.