§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLTO ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has received 76 a series of resolutions passed at a public meeting held in Bundoran on 8th November, over which the Very Rev. J. Malhern, D.D., P.P., presided, in favour of the construction of a line of railway between Sligo and Bundoran, in which the advantages to the public of such an undertaking are set forth; and whether, having regard to the fact that he, in response to' a deputation which waited on him during his visit to Sligo, ex pressed himself in the main as favourable to such a project, he will take into consideration in the preparation of the Ireland Development Grant Estimate for 1907–8 the question of the construction of a line from Bundoran to Sligo.
MR. BRYCEI have received the resolutions referred to in the Question, and have asked the Board of Works for a report on the proposed line. Although disposed to favour this and every similar project which would tend to develop the resources of the country, I regret to say that the present financial position of the Ireland Development Grant is not such as to make it possible to throw at this moment any further charges for railway extension upon it.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that he is one of about half-a-dozen itinerant Irish Secretaries who have come down holding out hopes which have no chance of realisation?
§ [No Answer was returned.]