asked the Minister for Finance whether he is aware that a deputation of the Kinsale Public Boards interviewed the President in Bandon, last autumn, as to the matter of the Kinsale Pier Debt, which debt, the local boards argue, has been overpaid, and that the balance still being pressed for is not lawfully owing; and whether as the settlement of the question is one of urgency, considering that the debt presses on the township and harbour to the detriment of any further development, he will have the matter investigated with a view to cancelling the balance still stated to be owing.

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. I cannot, however, accept the suggestion of the local boards that the Kinsale Pier Debt has been overpaid and that the balance still being pressed for is not lawfully owing. I have already fully considered the case on more than one occasion, and I regret that I cannot go beyond the concession offered to the Harbour Authorities in March, 1924.

Would there be any chance of a deputation from the Board interviewing the Minister on the question?

That is a matter that will have to be put to the Minister himself, but I am not sure that there is very much chance that it will be received in view of what is stated in the answer, that the concession offered was one beyond which the Minister feels he cannot go.