“The ratepayers of Dublin, of Rathmines, of Pembroke, of Clontarf, and other suburbs of the city, long will feel the burden added to their rates by the London litigation of the Session that has passed.  The Dublin Boundaries Extension Bill of 1899 has cost the city, as I am informed on reliable authority, between L12,000 and L13,000.  There were twenty-four separate sets of opponents.  The cost to Rathmines of its opposition approaches, I am informed, L8,000.  To meet it about one shilling in the pound must be added to the taxation of that township.  The costs of Pembroke cannot be far short of the same sum.  If we add those of the oppositions of Kilmainham, Drumcondra, Clontarf, and of the County of Dublin, and of private persons and public bodies, the total expense to the inhabitants and ratepayers of the city and its suburbs will not fall short of L45,000.

“Mr. Pope, Q.C., stated before the Committee which considered the Irish Railways Amalgamation Scheme of last Session, that the Bill at hearing was costing L5 per minute.  A high authority conversant with the proceedings in this case has informed me that this was an under-estimate rather than an over-estimate, having regard to the fact that there were twenty-seven separate oppositions.  The Bill occupied twenty-seven working days of four hours each, and its cost to the shareholders of the promoting Company were calculated to amount to about L400 per day.  What the loss was to the shareholders of other Companies, and to the ratepayers represented by public bodies, it would be impossible to say.  The Bill probably cost at least L50,000.  There was a Belfast Corporation Bill.  There was an Armagh and Keady Railway Bill.  There were several other Irish Bills before the Houses, exhausting thousands more of Irish capital, and diverting it from the material development of the country.  So abnormal was the waste of Irish money on the Railway Bill that it excited general attention even in England, and became the subject of comment in Parliament.  Mr. J. H. Lewis, the member for Flint Burghs, speaking on the 24th July, 1899, on the third reading of the Scotch Private Legislation Procedure Bill, said, ’I am sure everybody must have regarded with great dissatisfaction the enormous expenditure to which certain Irish Railway Companies were put during the last few weeks within the walls of the House.  Surely a better system can be devised than that which drags over from different parts of the United Kingdom a host of witnesses, who could be examined on the spot.  I am sure all honourable members deeply regret this great waste of public money.’”

These disabilities have been the subject of frequent representations.  Resolutions advocating reform have been repeatedly passed by the Irish Chambers of Commerce, by the Incorporated Law Society, and by local bodies.  Leaders of the Unionist party have constantly urged the necessity of a provision for expediting and cheapening Private Bill procedure.