Vol. 44 No. 5
I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £1,650 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1933, chun Costaisí i dtaobh Longlainne Inis Sionnach.
That a sum not exceeding £1,650 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1933, for Expenses in connection with Haulbowline Dockyard.
In this case there is a reduction from £5,800 to £4,720, a decrease of £1,080.
Agreed.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary indicate the manner in which this reduction is brought about? Would he give some explanation as to how the reduction was effected?
Dockyard maintenance is reduced from £4,000 to £3,240. Last time there was a big charge in relation to cleaning pipes, in relation to the oil tanks, etc. Fuel and light has come down from £400 to £350 and alterations to plant and buildings from £1,400 to £1,130. There really is not anything more.
Has the Minister for Finance or the Parliamentary Secretary considered or explored the possibility of making any further use of Haulbowline—for example, the manufacture of electrical appliances, things we have been promised for the last ten or twelve years. Has the Parliamentary Secretary considered the possibility of doing anything like that?
Frankly, day and night I have considered Haulbowline in the hope of getting some solution—some valuable use for it. If anyone would make any suggestion which is in the faintest degree helpful I will be deeply grateful to him. It is a very difficult problem, but it is certainly having every possible attention.
Do I understand from the Parliamentary Secretary that in return for this expenditure we are getting practically nothing in the way of useful work?
In this particular case there is the maintenance of very large buildings and estate, which may eventually have a particular use. In addition to that, we are getting rent both from the Dockyard itself and from the oil tanks there. The actual cost is considerably less than that. When the rents we are getting are taken off it comes to about £3,000.
But in return for the expenditure on labour and the maintenance of buildings and machinery, is the State getting any return for that labour?
Practically only the maintenance of our estate and the maintenance of certain responsibility we had in relation to the water supply and so on which passes through there.
