asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the duties, privileges and responsibilities of baronial directors elected by the Donegal County Council to the directorate of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway.
The provisions under which the Donegal County Council were empowered to appoint two directors to the board of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company are contained in statutory Orders made in 1898. The powers of the director nominees of the county council were conferred in consideration of a guarantee by the county council as successors of the grand jury, in respect of interest payments on an issue of £10,000 of 4 per cent. stock and were confined by the Orders to matters affecting the Buncrana-Carndonagh and Letterkenny - Burtonport baronially guaranteed lines. I am advised that the county council was never at any time called upon to fulfil its guarantee. The 4 per cent. guaranteed stock was extinguished in 1945 by agreement with the holders, who received in exchange an equivalent nominal amount of 4 per cent. debenture stock of the company. These lines are no longer in use and so far as I am aware there are no functions exercisable by nominees of the council in relation to the management of the company.