§ LORD KILLANINrose "To ask His Majesty's Government whether any steps were being taken to bring into operation in Ireland the transit scheme known as the Iveagh - Pirrie Motor-Car Service: and to call attention to the local interest taken in the projected route from Galway to Costello." The noble Lord said: My Lords, in putting to His Majesty's Government the Question standing in my name I should like to make one or two explanatory remarks. More than two years have elapsed since the then Chief Secretary for Ireland announced in another place that Lord Iveagh and 519 Mr. Pirrie had expressed their willingness to spend a very considerable sum of money in establishing and financing as a running concern a service of motorcars in out-of-the-way parts of Ireland where facilities of transit are very much needed, and this extremely generous and public-spirited action on the part of these two remarkable Irishmen was very well received in Ireland, and awakened widespread interest throughout the country. But, as I have said, it is two years since this announcement was made, and I desire to-day to ask what steps are being taken to carry the scheme into operation.
I am fairly familiar with what occurred last year. Lord Iveagh and Mr. Pirrie appointed a Commission to investigate as to suitable routes on which to run these motor-cars. They were given every assistance by Irish Public Departments. Local councils instructed their officials to give them every information, and they finally decided, I understand, to try the service on seventeen routes. Last year the then Chief Secretary for Ireland was very keen about it, and did a great deal to remove difficulties that had arisen in inaugurating the service. The present Chief Secretary has lately visited the West of Ireland, and now that he has become acquainted with the necessity for facilities of transit in these out-of-the-way parts of the country I hope he will attend to the matter, and see if this mo-car service cannot be brought into operation. I would also like to draw attention to one route with which I am more particularly familiar, on account of living in that district. It is one of the seventeen routes that were recommended, and it is in a part of Ireland which is more in need of these facilities, perhaps, than any other. It is very remote, but very populous; it is also a very poor district where the people have the greatest difficulty in getting what they require, and where they have no convenience for exporting what their labour produces. As evidence of the great interest that was taken in the scheme there, I would mention that the Galway County Council and District Council voted £1,750 for the purpose of putting the roads in repair. Anyone familiar with the county 520 councils in Ireland, and with the poverty of the districts there, will bear me out when I say that that was very strong evidence of the practical interest of the people in making this concern a success.
§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (The Marquess of LONDONDERRY)My Lords, I am sure there is no one in your Lordships' House more competent to put forward the requirements of county Galway than my noble friend, whose name, through the good deeds of his late lamented father, is a household word in that county. I am, therefore, only too glad to answer any Question which my noble friend may put to me. Reference was made by the noble Lord to the debate that took place in the other House rather more than a year ago, in which my right hon. friend the then Chief Secretary for Ireland dwelt at considerable length on the proposal made by those two patriotic and highly-respected Irishmen, Lord Iveagh and Mr Pirrie, with regard to the creation of a motor-car service in certain parts of the country. The Chief Secretary stated that there were no less than seventeen routes selected which they considered would be benefited by this motor-car service. These routes were surveyed and investigated, at the request of Lord Iveagh and Mr. Pirrie, by the Irish Government, who gave them, so far as they could, their cordial support in the philanthropic and useful scheme which they were propounding; and included in those seventeen routes was the route between Galway and Costello. But when the scheme was put forward there was this contingency, that the roads should be put in such a condition that the cars could travel over them with safety; and when I tell your Lordships that the motor engine of these cars weighs four tons and the trailer one and a-half tons it will be readily recognised that it was necessary that the roads should be put in order. Several county councils approved of the scheme, and amongst them was the county council to which my noble friend alluded. The county councils approved of the proposed experimental service, but declined the expenditure that was necessary to put the roads into proper condition. My noble friend is quite right 521 in stating that the county council of Galway did more, perhaps, than the other county councils in the matter, for I find that they made a suggestion that the share of the county in the unexpended balances of the Exchequer contribution for labourers' cottages should be placed at the disposal of the council for the relief of the expenditure on roads for this service. The Irish Government favourably considered this suggestion, and proposed an Amendment to the now defunct Labourers Bill of 1904 which gave effect to that proposal. Therefore, my noble friend will see that, so far as lay in their power, His Majesty's Irish Executive gave assistance to that council, of which he is a member, and would have been glad to see the proposed scheme carried into effect. But no further steps, so far as I can gather, seem to have been taken by the various county councils in the promotion of this very philanrhtopic and excellent scheme. Indeed, I believe that Lord Iveagh and Mr. Pirrie announced that they would allow a year to go by in order to see what could be done, and whether the proposed scheme would receive that consideration at the hands of the various county councils which they thought it should receive, if necessary, a rate being levied to meet the expenditure incurred.
I cannot but think that unless the county councils within whose jurisdiction these seventeen routes come act as a whole the scheme must fall through, for, philanthropic as these gentlemen are, they cannot be asked to supply motor-cars for only a few of the routes instead of for the whole of the system which they had thought out, surveyed, and investigated. I would remind my noble friend that, however much the Irish Executive sympathise with the idea of this motor-car service, developing as it would certain remote parts of Ireland and giving opportunities for the transport of the produce of that part of the country, they have nothing whatever to do with this scheme beyond according it, if I may use the expression, a paternal interest, and giving its promoters every assistance in their power. We should be glad to see the county councils act as we had hoped they would act when this scheme was first in 522 augurated by putting their roads in order, for we feel sure that if the scheme were taken up it would be of enormous benefit to the country as a whole, and especially to that part with which my noble friend is so intimately connected.