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.