§ MR. WILLIAM ABRAHAMTo ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office 1519 if his attention has been called to the fact that the military gas works in Fermoy Barracks have recently been connected with the premises of the Great Southern and Western Railway Company; whether he is aware that the gas is supplied by the Fermoy Gas Company to the military barracks at 2s. 11d. per 1,000 cubic feet and from the military works to the railway company af 5s. 10d. per 1,000 cubic feet; will the gas company be obliged to refund the money received from the railway company; and if the War Office intends to allow the military works to continue to be used for the private supply of gas.
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether the Fermoy Gas Company, a non-statutory body, supplies the military with gas at 2s. 11d. per 1,000, while charging the town 5s. 10d.; has Government sanction been obtained to the supply of the railway station from the barracks gasworks; will the money thus received for War Office gas be accounted for to Government; and whether, as the Irish Courts have frequently decided that this company acts illegally in breaking up streets without statutory authority or the consent of the local authority, the War Office will abstain from assisting the gas company against the town council in its struggle to compel the gas company to resort to Parliament for powers and rates of charge.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) The facts are substantially as stated in the Questions. The Army Council are of opinion that the Military Gas Works should not be permitted to supply any private customers of the gas company of Fermoy, and instructions have been issued accordingly that the supply at present given to the railway company should cease after a week's notice.