§ Mr. SLOANTo ask the Postmaster-General what is the cause of the delay in the erection of the new post office at Monaghan on the Mill Street site, which the General Post Office Department decided on long since; if he is aware that the contract for the same was given by the Board of Works and accepted by a local man named Francis Duffy, plasterer and contractor; if the latter withdrew from the contract before the bond was signed; and if he will ascertain whether the Post Office Department will give the contract to the next lowest tender to the one mentioned, or advertise again.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The arrangements for the erection of the new post office at Monaghan are in the hands of the Board of Public Works in Dublin. I understand that difficulties occurred in regard to the contract originally placed by the Board; but that a contract has now been placed with another firm, and that building operations are about to be put in hand.