asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that the bus service between New Ross and Dublin, and Wexford and Dublin is completely inadequate to accommodate the amount of passenger traffic on these lines; and, if so, as serious inconvenience and dislocation of business is caused to travellers, if he will make representations to Córas Iompair Éireann to provide facilities to carry more passengers on these two lines.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Wexford-Dublin Bus Services.
The conditions to which the Deputy refers are general in present circumstances and are not confined to the Dublin-Wexford and Dublin-New Ross routes. Córas Iompair Éireann are operating the maximum mileage possible on the supplies available to them, and improved services on these routes could only be provided by a corresponding reduction elsewhere.
Is the Minister really serious? People have to stand in a queue for an hour, and then they are left behind. It is lamentable to see even patients who have come out of hospital, and who may have no money in their pockets, being left behind at Wexford, with no alternative but to go back to hospital for the night. Surely something should be done to ease the situation? People who have been standing in a queue for an hour are not sure of getting a seat, and many of them are business people who have to get away. I thought, when this Government came into power——
The Deputy should confine himself to a Supplementary Question on the matter before the House.
With due respect, Sir, I say that if you were looking at those queues you would do something about them. The Minister, unfortunately, does not see them, and what the eye does not see the heart does not feel.
I wonder is the Minister aware that in this particular case, where overcrowding is complained of on the New Ross bus, greyhounds have been taken in preference to human beings?