I could have wished that I had some intimation that this estimate was going to be taken up this evening. I did not anticipate we would have reached it in the ordinary course. It is a very important one from the point of view of the county for which I am one of the representatives. I should like to have it dealt with after more careful consideration, but I have not had time to go into the particulars. However, I do not see why this particular railway company should have acquired a subsidy of £6,940. Here is a line of 100 miles odd in length and has received from the Treasury some £420,000 for the construction of this line as a free grant. That was given for the construction of the Burtonport-Carndonagh Railway, and then through an agreement they got the right to work it. In conjunction with these railways that were constructed by a free grant, they were working as well 13 miles of their own. During the long series of years they have continued to have the use of this money that they got free and the profits they derived from these lines—and these profits were considerable—were carried on to the parent line and found their way into the pockets of the shareholders. When it comes now to a bad spell, and when the weather gets, perhaps, less favourable, they begin to lose money, according to themselves, on the lines that they had formerly made a huge profit on. Whether these losses arise through deliberate action on their own part, which is rather much like the thing, and which has been, so far as the service of the county for which these railways were made to serve, is concerned, disastrous for the county— whether that arises from a deliberate policy or not I do not know, but the fact remains that there has been no regularly maintained service.
The people have been disappointed, the railways are alleged to have been losing, and now they come to us and say: We must close down upon the whole line or ask the Government to stump up to try to keep them running. At the same time some three miles out of the hundred miles they work is within the Six County area between the City of Derry and the junction where the barrier exists. Recently they have been working strenuously to get a Bill through some House or other in order to enable them to erect a station at Derry. The idea of facilitating the erection of a station at Derry for the management and the working of the Lough Swilly Railway does not seem to have much sense at the present time. We, at least, could not afford to give sanction to a proposal of the kind until we find out whether Derry City, which has always been portion of the County Donegal, is to stand in with Belfast or not, or whether this station that is to control the railway within a big area of our county is to be managed, directed and controlled through an agency in the Six County area. Should the Provisional Boundary, as it exists at present, be consented to by the City of Derry and that they still continue to agree to maintain a barrier between themselves and the people in their own hinterland, and thereby ordain that grass should grow on the streets, it is not a question so much for us as for them. In the meantime, the question we are up against is whether we should or not grant a subsidy to this railway.
I think we should call upon them now to have this supplied from the monies that they accumulated in the past on these lines, and that they should not come to us in a time of stress, when in a time of prosperity they got such a huge revenue. It is well known that the Lough Swilly Railway some time ago was the highest dividend-paying concern in the Kingdom. Now they say they are a bankrupt concern. It must not be forgotten that the whole 13 lines referred to in the Schedule are only 251¾ miles altogether, and the capital of them is only something over £1,000,000. That capital was subscribed by shareholders and that capital has got to be paid on. Here we have a hundred miles on which there are no dividends to be paid on the capital that constructed them, so that I think it is preposterous for these people to come here now—I do not know what is at the bottom of it—to ask us to give them a sum of £56,940 to help them out at this particular time. Besides, as Deputy Davin has stated, they have not given any reasonable facilities to those they are supposed to cater for. These railways have been a sort of laughing stock. There is no area where a better prospect of a remunerative service is offered than in the County Tirconnail. That has proved to be so in the past. They could prove it is so to-day. The same opportunities exist now for making profits as existed then, and yet here they come to us with a ledger that is altogether on the wrong side, according to themselves. I think it is not a question for us to take up at all.
They should be dealt with on business lines only, and whatever object they may have in view in coming to us, with a balance of that kind, whether it could be justified or not, whether it is due to any action of their own which could have been otherwise directed towards having a profit instead of a loss, is a question for themselves. They have undoubtedly used great pressure in every direction to try to secure a concession from this Government and at the same time they were charged with using questionable methods in managing their lines, so far as our people could view them in the position in which the country was placed. It was very doubtful whether they were not more or less inclined to give little consideration to the stabilising of conditions in the Free State as they should be stabilised. This was a very doubtful question; and there were arguments on both sides. For my part I would not like to say that they were acting in full accord with a desire for stability here. While I would not say that they were in active opposition, at the same time I would not be prepared to acquit them of passive sympathy with a state of affairs that would possibly bring us in the Free State into difficulty, and I think a great deal of the trouble that they allege now in the way of shortage of returns is largely due to their actions in that respect.
It is well for the Dáil to understand that and to have the position clearly before them on these things before we begin to vote away money out of sympathy with people who perhaps do not deserve very much sympathy, and as far as the interests of the county are concerned, I am perfectly certain that they will not suffer through the withholding of this money, because I am confident that the material interests that are reposed in the parent line are sufficiently strong to induce this railway company, without this grant, to put their line into such working order and to manage their business in such a way that they will bring the company gradually to the same position of profit with regard to the running of this railway as they were in. Times were prosperous before, but it is rather a good idea if a concern runs down, whether it is run down deliberately or accidentally, to come to the State and ask for some subsidy and it is very kind on the part of the State no doubt to give it. At the same time, it is very doubtful policy in the circumstances that exist with regard to this line at present. There is the duality that exists geographically in the area covered by the line and the doubtful question as to where we must have the new headquarters station on the line in the immediate future and as to whether the traffic of the county of Tirconaill is to be in future directed to and from Lough Foyle or whether it is to be taken to and from its own harbours, where there are at least two better harbours than Lough Foyle, and where the possibility is that should Derry still maintain the attitude that it wishes to remain with Belfast and keep a barrier between itself and its customers in Tirconaill, when this traffic must of necessity go the other way, through our own ports.
This new proposed station would then be not the centre and headquarters of this railway, but merely an outpost station of the County Donegal, where the line may run past it towards Derry, should such a boundary still remain. I am very much opposed to the idea that these people should be allowed to get this money at all. However, perhaps the Minister has arguments in favour of it, and I will hear what they are with interest. No doubt he did not set down a sum of money and did not approach the Minister for Finance, who is very difficult to approach on such questions, without having very strong arguments before he was able to secure a concession of that sort. I will be very interested to hear what the arguments are, and unless they are better than I think they are I will continue to hold that we should not give this grant to this Lough Swilly Railway.