asked the Minister for Transport and Power if in view of the failure of CIE to provide adequate services for the carriage of livestock he will take steps to remove the restrictions on unlicensed hauliers for the transport of livestock.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Transport of Livestock.
21.
I am not aware that CIE have failed to provide adequate services for the carriage of livestock.
The Minister is not aware of anything about CIE. He has it all bottled up.
Would the Deputy please allow the business to proceed?
It is not proceeding —we are not getting any information.
I want the Questions on the Order Paper to be answered. Will the Deputy allow them to be answered?
That is the best news I have ever heard.
All this is not adding to the prestige of the House.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, is he not aware that CIE have failed to provide transport for livestock to cattle marts in provincial towns? Any Deputy will tell the Minister that CIE have completely failed in this respect.
I do occasionally get a complaint from Deputies in regard to this matter, or from aggrieved persons. Each complaint of failure to supply sufficient wagons for the transport of livestock to cattle marts is investigated with the greatest care. As I indicated in a speech I made on the occasion of my last Estimate any complaints of a kind which have a common relation to the transport of livestock are particularly carefully looked at in my Department and appropriate representations made. The number of complaints made is absolutely negligible in the last six months and I would be glad to hear of any exceptions, if the Deputy would care to communicate them to me. I have also told the House that the actual carriage of livestock by CIE has increased in the last three years quite substantially and this indicates that CIE are giving reasonably good service.
Must the people walk their cattle?
The Minister is apparently dealing with rail transport and not road transport.
I am referring to road transport.
CIE have failed utterly in regard to road transport.
I should be very glad if the Deputy would send me any particulars he has of flagrant inefficiency in that respect because this is a matter of national importance and it is essential if CIE purport to provide an efficient service, that they should do so. I should be very much surprised if what the Deputy says is correct.