asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will make a statement on the measures taken in connection with publicity designed to attract to alternative services passengers who fail to obtain accommodation on the Dún Laoghaire/ Holyhead route during the forthcoming tourist season.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cross-Channel Passenger Services.
I would refer the Deputy to my detailed reply to a somewhat similar question by Deputy Coogan on the 8th May. I have since been informed that British Railways are this season drawing particular attention to the Fishguard services as an alternative for travellers who cannot be accommodated on the Holyhead/Dún Laoghaire route.
May I take it that throughout Britain there are notices up in railway stations and other places advertising the Rosslare, Waterford and Cork routes in the same way as the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead route is advertised?
I could not say in what way the company which runs the services have decided to advertise them. I explained in my reply on 8th May that a number of proposals designed to improve facilities for passenger transport across the Channel had been considered and the policy designed was one to attract passengers to alternative services, that is, those passengers who fail to obtain accommodation on the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead route. I know that the railway company concerned is calling the attention of travellers, who cannot be accommodated on the Holyhead/Dún Laoghaire route, to the fact that there is an alternative route available from Rosslare to Fishguard. What their advertising arrangements are in Great Britain I cannot say.
Surely it should be possible for the Minister to indicate whether or not there is any publicity? If a person wants to travel to Ireland and he cannot get accommodation on the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead route, surely it is not suggested that it is publicity to tell that person there is an alternative route? I suggest there should be some publicity given to the other routes.
The Deputy must not misunderstand what I have said. I know that people, when they apply for tickets, have been told of these alternative routes. In addition to that I have been told by the British Transport Commission, by no less a person than the chairman of that commission, that one of their methods of providing increased facilities for passengers between the two countries is publicity designed to attract such passengers to alternative services. I cannot say where exactly they advertise these facilities; neither can I say what the method is. In any case, I think that must be left to the British Transport Commission, over which I have no control; but they will be made aware of, and are, I believe, alive to the necessity of publicising alternative services to relieve pressure on the Holyhead/Dún Laoghaire route.
I appreciate what the Minister has said but it seems to me we have been waiting a great number of years for British Railways to give publicity to routes other than the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead route. Would the Minister not consider making more explicit inquiries as to what the position is, because I am rather doubtful about it?
The position is that since discussions took place with British Railways we passed through the pressure on transport last Christmas from the point of view of passengers and no one failed to get through in one direction or the other. Since then we have passed through the Easter pressure on transport and, from the point of view of passengers, no one failed to get through. I set out the alternative arrangements in reply to a question on 8th May. Apparently, that reply was either not clearly understood or examined in detail. From that point of view, perhaps the Chair will now permit me to repeat the reply given then:—
"The British Transport Commission have... indicated that they have taken a number of measures to improve the cross-Channel services. These measures include:—
(a) An increased number of extra sailings on both the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead and Rosslare/ Fishguard routes during July and August. On the former route there will be 25 extra sailings inwards and 24 outwards during these months. On the latter route there will be four extra inward sailings and one outwards.
(b) Increased accommodation for third-class passengers.
(c) A 20 per cent. reduction in fares in mid-week from 1st May to mid-September. This inducement was introduced last year, but this season it has come into operation six weeks earlier.
(d) Increased allocations of sailing tickets to London, Birmingham and Manchester offices. Previously these tickets have been based mainly at Holyhead.
(e) Publicity designed to attract to alternative services passengers who fail to obtain accommodation on the Dún Laoghaire/Holyhead route.
I hope that these arrangements may result in improved services this year and I have asked An Bord Fáilte to keep this matter under close review."
So far, there has been no failure by any person that I know of to obtain transport. Certainly no complaint has reached my Department of anybody failing to secure the required transport. The matter is being kept under observation both by my Department and by An Bord Fáilte. We have come through the Christmas period and the Easter period, when only some of these arrangements were in operation, and there has been no failure to provide the necessary transport. Now, do not let us look for difficulties that are not there.
May I ask the Minister whether he is forgetting that there is also another alternative route, namely, the City of Cork?
And there is an alternative service between Fishguard and Waterford. Nothing is done about this service. It is not advertised nor is anything done to publicise it.