Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 2 Jul 1926

Vol. 16 No. 19

IN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. - SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES. VOTE 57—RAILWAYS.

Mr. BLYTHE

I move:—

Go ndeontar Suim Breise, ná raghaidh thar £5,000, chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1927, chun íocaíochtanna fé Acht na mBóthar Iarainn, 1924, fén Tramways and Public Companies (Ireland) Act, 1883, etc., agus chun crícheanna eile a bhaineann le hIompar in Eirinn.

That a Supplementary Sum, not exceeding £5,000, be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1927, for payments under the Railways Act, 1924, the Tramways and Public Companies (Ireland) Act, 1883, etc., and for other purposes connected with Irish Transport.

The Burtonport, Carndonagh and Letterkenny extensions of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway were constructed with the aid of State funds. They are worked by the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company under a statutory agreement which provides that the working Company shall be allowed out of the receipts the actual cost of working up to a maximum sum calculated at the rate of £3 10s. per mile per week, the receipts above the cost of working and interest on Guaranteed Stock which amounts to £400 per annum to be divided evenly between the working Company and the Treasury, now the Department of Finance, or with the consent of the Department applied to improvements on the line. The cost of working has for some considerable time been far in excess of the figure of £3 10s. per mile per week allowed. The deficiencies for the years 1923, 1924 and 1925 were for 1923, £16,133; for 1924, £9,957; and for 1925 £11,211. These deficiencies were met by a payment out of the Compensation Fund of the British Government and by an advance of £1,510 from the Saorstát Government in 1923-4 in respect of the loss in 1923. The Saorstát Government made an advance of £5,430 in 1924-25 in respect of the loss in 1924. Last year the Government of the Saorstát and the Government of Northern Ireland made advances of £7,000 each in respect of the loss in 1925.

The Company's accounts have recently been examined by officers of the Transport and Marine Section of the Department of Industry and Commerce who recommended the continuance of the allowance. It is proposed, as seen on the face of the Estimate, that a grant of £5,000 should be made this year. The Government of Northern Ireland has also agreed to make a grant of £5,000. This grant must really be regarded as a temporary expedient for carrying on the lines. Arrangements for the future working of them are under consideration, but any change that would be involved would necessitate legislation. The lines can only keep working by providing the money which will enable the Company to carry on.

Mr. McGOLDRICK

In relation to this supplementary estimate I wish to say a word or two. Here we are asked for a subsidy. No doubt it is possibly the alternative to a restricted service or perhaps to a closing down, but why are we in this position with respect to this railway? I will say here that we are so circumstanced through apathy, delay, and neglect on the part of the Government to put the railways in our county on an economic basis. We have two separate railway companies, each with about 100 miles of railway, in our county. Each of these lines runs to and from what was our county port in the past, namely, Derry. All traffic went from our county in that direction and our trading requirements came through from this port. Since 1922 this port has been placed or retained in a different State with barbed wire barriers through which we have as yet humiliatingly to crawl. This intolerable position is the result of our own Government's procrastination or neglect, if you can call it so.

Our railways can be made economic at a comparatively small cost by linking them up and having amalgamation and connection with our own State and our own ports and interlinking to a very small extent. No one can understand why this is not being done. Instead we have to pay supplementary grants like this to maintain this intolerable position. The main body of the members of the House, and I presume some members of the Executive Council, have no correct knowledge of the extraordinary position of our county, bounded as it is on one side by the Six Counties, with only an outlet towards our own State of about half a mile, and on the other side by the Atlantic Ocean with several superior but undeveloped ports. With its own port barriered off and no railway connection with its own State, it is an object lesson of Government incapacity, if nothing worse, to find that as yet no steps have been taken economically to connect it with its own State, to interlink and amalgamate its two railways and to direct these lines to and from its own ports instead of keeping it in dependence on another State with all the consequent disadvantage to itself and advantage to an adjoining foreign area.

I must ask the Minister to give me some definite undertaking that we will not be asked for any more subsidies on this head, but that the interlinking and connection of our county with its own State and its own port will be taken up by the Government without any more delay and that our county will be placed in the same position in relation to its own State as the other counties of the State are at present. If that is done we will have no need for these subsidies; the thing can be made economic. Our two lines of railways can be interlinked by a very small connection and amalgamated. As a consequence you will do away with the necessity for coming to this House and asking for £5,000 to pay to a company which is in the position this company is in at present, because of the fact that these things are not done.

It is the first duty of the Government to see that all its areas are brought into common relationship, and that any particular county is not hidden away behind a barrier and left to fend for itself without any connection whatever with its own State, and to see that it is not compelled to go, at whatever cost, through barriers that are erected by other people to discriminate between the people of this State and others. It is the duty of our paternal Government to see that that county is placed in the same position of independence as every other county in the State. If that is done we will have no need for these doles and subsidies that are being given by this Government and the Northern Government, which has only a few miles of these railways within its area. Undoubtedly the fact that the Northern Government is giving the same amount as we are shows the extent to which they are dependent on our side of the border. They are hardheaded men and they are not likely to give anything away if it is not of any advantage for their own purposes. They would be very slow to pass it otherwise.

Vote put and agreed to.