asked the Minister for Lands and Fisheries whether he can state the reasons for the withholding of a grant of £400 by his Department for the construction or improving of the pier on Inisfree Island, Co. Donegal, in 1924.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pier at Inisfree Island.
No work in connection with the construction of a pier at Inisfree Island has been carried out by the Land Commission, but the matter will receive consideration when the Conyngham (Rosses) Estate, in which the Island is included, is being dealt with under the provisions of the Land Act, 1923.
My information is that the islanders were granted £400 by the Department of Lands and Fisheries in the year 1924, and that no money has been expended on the improvement of the pier and harbour since.
Perhaps the Deputy will allow me to say a word at this stage——
The Deputy must ask a question. He cannot make a statement.
The question I wish to put is to ask the Minister if the following facts which I am putting to him are correct: in 1924, when there was a considerable amount of distress in Donegal and other parts of the country, particularly in the Gaeltacht, Deputies representing these areas met here and they pooled their claims so that no particular district should be left out.
The Deputy cannot make a speech.
I want to put this question to the Minister: if it is not a fact that I was the means of getting a grant of £400 for the islanders at that time? They were in rebellion against the payment of rents and rates, and they have been in rebellion against the payment of rents and rates since. They have paid neither rates nor rents. I do not know who prompted them to do that.
That is not a question.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that in the year 1924 the Minister for Finance sanctioned a grant of £400 for the building of a landing place at the island? I hold a letter, written in the year 1924 by a Cumann na nGaedheal Deputy, in which he said the £400 was granted. Why was the work not carried out?
The Minister for Finance has nothing whatever to do with the sanction of a grant for the building of a landing place at Inisfree Island. A sum of £400 was segregated for the purpose of doing this work out of the relief Vote. That was subsequently transferred to another work. Ordinarily this work should be done out of the Improvement Vote and the Land Commission transferred this sum of £400, sanctioned in the first instance to another work because they expected at a later date to do this work at Inisfree out of the Improvements Vote. In the second place, the islanders were in revolt against the payment of rent to the Land Commission and the Land Commission would not carry out the work until the islanders would agree to recognise their liability for these rents.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary able to state when this work will be carried out?
It will be carried out at a later date.
Is he aware that this £400 which was sanctioned for the carrying out of repairs to the pier at Inisfree was spent in another part of the county?
It was spent in another part of the county.
Would I be right in stating that it was held out as a bribe to the islanders when the 1924 bye-election came along and that when they did not vote for the Government candidate it was transferred?
There was no bye-election in 1924; the Deputy is drawing on his imagination.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary give an assurance that the money has not gone into the Six Counties?