asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he is aware that the West Cork railway line is included in the services detailed in the Coras Iompair Éireann folder advertising 15-day tours for £6; and what steps are being taken to facilitate tourists who have bought those tickets for the purpose of visiting West Cork.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tourist Transport Services in West Cork.
25.
This is a matter of day to day administration and, therefore, entirely one for the Board of Coras Iompair Éireann, whom I have asked to write to the Deputy in the matter.
Would the Minister say if the people who bought these tickets will get any satisfaction or be facilitated in any way?
The question is utterly trivial. If the Deputy examines the leaflet he will see that he himself has misunderstood it and that, whatever the Minister for Transport and Power is supposed to do in the way of giving reasonable public information, it does not include the discussion or interpretation of a leaflet in which nine out of ten people would agree the thing was properly explained in a way that the Deputy has not understood. We cannot start answering questions of that kind.
The complaint was made to me by an Englishman who visited this country.
The Englishman did not read the leaflet properly.
Is it becoming contagious? The Taoiseach has described questions asked by Deputies as foolish and his colleague pursues him by describing a question as utterly trivial and unworthy of reply? This seems to be poor manners on the front bench.
We are always prepared to take a lesson in manners from Deputy Dillon.
You are not setting a good example.
It would be impossible to reply to questions of this kind if they were asked in great numbers. The question refers to a leaflet and you simply have to read one inch further down the page to see that it applies not only to rail travel but to bus travel and you only have to look a second time at the map to see that the map includes both bus routes and rail routes. One could have any number of questions on any number of leaflets published by C.I.E. and where would it stop?
We will have a number of questions when it suits us. We are not going to be lectured by the Minister for Transport and Power. He is a very bad specimen to start that.
Is the Minister further aware that to avail of the bus service in West Cork tourists must pay £2 more per head?
It says so in the leaflet.
The position is such that they should keep their eyes open and take the wax out of their ears.
The Deputy will find that all questions are answered in a highly satisfactory manner and that the answers cover most of the main activities of the companies concerned where it is in the public interest to give that information.
Highly satisfactory to whom?
The Minister, for uprooting railways.
The replies can be most misleading.