§ Captain REDMONDasked the Minister of Transport if he is aware that Irish livestock traders' periodical tickets have been advanced to such a prohibitive price that large numbers of dealers and traders have refused to accept them on the terms offered; whether the arrangement as regards traders' tickets on Irish railways was arrived at against the wishes of the Irish railway managers; and, if so, will he instruct the Irish railway managers to revert to the old terms on which such tickets were issued?
§ Sir E. GEDDESThe charges for all traders' season tickets in the United Kingdom were increased on the advice of the Rates Advisory Committee, who made1444W their recommendation, after holding a public inquiry at which evidence was tendered on behalf of the traders as well as the railways, that they should be issued at 20 per cent, below ordinary season tickets. It was subsequently brought to my notice that the application of the revised arrangement resulted in some cases in Ireland in a very great increase and directions were issued limiting the amount of increase considerably. I gave the most sympathetic consideration to this complaint, and made special concessions from the considered advice of the Rates Advisory Committee, and in the existing financial position of the railways a reversion to the old terms on which traders' tickets were issued cannot, I fear, be considered.