Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Jul 1952

Vol. 133 No. 12

Vote 51—Transport and Marine Services.

Mr. Lemass

I move:—

That a supplementary sum not exceeding £3,500 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1953, for certain Transport Services; for Grants for Harbours; for the Salaries and Expenses of the Marine Service (Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1947, and the Foreshore Act, 1933 (No. 12 of 1933)); for certain payments in respect of Compensation, including the cost of medical treatment (No. 19 of 1946); and for the Coast Life-Saving Service.

I want to make a brief statement on this Estimate also. The Sligo-Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway has been operating at a loss since 1933 except during the war years. Last year the position deteriorated to such an extent that its management came to me and said they were proposing to cease operations. I met the representatives of the various interests involved, the representatives of the workers employed by the undertaking numbering about 100 in our territory, the representatives of the live-stock interests who spoke about the importance of the line to them and the management itself in order to consider what could be done to meet the position. The company, as the House should be aware, is a cross-Border company. The line runs from Sligo to Enniskillen. It joins the main Córas Iompair Éireann system about five miles from Sligo. I offered the undertaking to Córas Iompair Éireann.

Mr. Cosgrave

Another millstone.

Mr. Davin

It might be an asset to them if they only realised it.

Mr. Lemass

Córas Iompair Éireann considered the possibility and, having done so, they decided they had no interest in the continuance of the railway. In fact, it exists to divert to Belfast and the other Six-County ports traffic that would otherwise come to the Twenty-Six County ports. They said that if they were compelled to take over the line they would immediately go to the Transport Tribunal for an order to close it down. I found no solution to the problem of this undertaking through that suggestion. We considered what would happen if the line did, in fact, close down and in considering that we got a report from the local government engineers as to the state of the roads in the area. That report indicated that these roads were not in a condition to carry the traffic that would be diverted on to them if this line ceased operations and that it would take five or six years, plus a fairly considerable expenditure, to put them into a condition to take that traffic. In the circumstances, and as a temporary arrangement, it was decided to make a grant from State funds of £3,500 to enable the undertaking to carry on. The Six County Government has been giving a grant to this undertaking since 1934.

Mr. Davin

It pays them well to do so.

Mr. Lemass

They have given £3,000 in the present year. The amount given is just enough to keep the undertaking going. The House is aware that I am opposed to the whole principle of transport subsidies and I am very conscious of the fact that I persisted in refusing a subsidy to another railway undertaking that recently closed down. The justification for the treatment given to this undertaking must rest upon the practical difficulty of putting road services into the area to take the traffic that would have to be carried by them should the railway cease operations.

Mr. Cosgrave

Is there any possibility of getting shipments through Sligo port? I understand that one of the complaints in recent years is that the Burns and Laird Line are moving cattle by rail to northern ports and shipping them through the Six Counties.

Mr. Lemass

About six or eight months ago as a matter of fact shipping facilities for cattle from Sligo port were resumed but ceased again in the last few weeks because they were not supported by the local live-stock traders.

Mr. Davin

I am not opposing the provision of this subsidy but I would like to see it given under specific conditions. The Minister has hinted at something that is much more serious than one might imagine at first sight. This company for a number of years has allowed itself to be used by methods such as secret agreements with northern shipping companies operating from the port of Belfast to take traffic out of its normal or natural route and have it diverted and sent to Great Britain — I am speaking in particular now of live stock — through the ports of Belfast and Derry.

Mr. Lemass

There is no other reason for the line's existence. That is why it was built.

Mr. Davin

I do not think that the taxpayers in the ordinary way should provide a subsidy to enable a company to divert from its natural route live-stock traffic that should go through the port of Dublin or, as Deputy Cosgrave pointed out, through the port of Sligo if the proper facilities exist there. I have had innumerable complaints over a period of years which I have conveyed in succession, and so have the dockers and the unions catering for them, to the Minister for Agriculture. This is a more serious matter than some Deputies might imagine. I am not opposing the provision of the subsidy to which the Minister has committed himself but I would like the senior officials of the Minister's Department to inquire, in conjunction with the officials of the Department of Agriculture, into the allegations as to the use that has been made in the past of this company's route to the detriment of ports in the Republic and workers who might otherwise be employed in the ports of the Republic.

Mr. Lemass

I find myself in very considerable agreement with the Deputy and in deciding on my future attitude towards this undertaking I will be greatly strengthened by the knowledge that Deputy Davin has spoken as he did. There is no doubt that the economic interests of the Twenty-Six Counties are not being catered for by the retention of this line at all. The provision of the subsidy is justifiable because of the fact that a considerable expenditure will be necessary on the roads in the area before the termination of the railway can be regarded with equanimity.

Mr. Cosgrave

Will the subsidy keep the railway going for the next 12 months?

Mr. Lemass

Yes, and it is only for 12 months.

Vote put and agreed to.

Resolutions (Votes 1 to 72) to be reported.

The Dáil went out of Committee.