§ 37. Mr. DANIEL BOYLEasked the Postmaster-General why the mail-car service between Ballina and Belmullet, county Mayo, which for upwards of sixty years has provided the only public facility for the conveyance of passengers over the forty miles covered by the service, is about to be withdrawn and a van service for the conveyance of mails only proposed to be substituted, thus completely isolating this large area, with its poor and scattered population; if he will state what steps Lave been taken by the Post Office to obtain from some other of the Irish Departments a subsidy or indemnity, and with what result; and will he now undertake to continue for a time the existing service, with a view to having arrangements made to keep up a service for the traffic of passengers between Ballina and Belmullet?
§ Captain NORTONThe present situation arises, first, from the diminution in the receipts earned in respect of passengers by the vehicles which convey the mails, with the result that the previous arrangement could not be continued without a very large increase in the subsidy paid; and, secondly, from the refusal of the Congested Districts Board and the Board of Agriculture to subsidise the conveyance of passengers. In these circumstances the Post Office, which has no funds at its disposal for the provision of passenger facilities, has had no option but to provide a service for the conveyance of mails only.
§ Mr. BOYLEIn consequence of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply I shall raise this question on the Adjournment.