asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will state to the nearest available date (a) the number of passengers carried on the Waterford/Tramore bus service, (b) the total receipts, and (c) whether this service is showing a profit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Waterford-Tramore Bus Service.
18.
I would refer the Deputy to the reply given by me on 23rd October, 1963 to a similar question, to which I have nothing to add.
Would the Minister mind telling me what reply he gave me in 1963?
The Deputy should know perfectly well what the reply was. It is not my intention to ask CIE to break down individual costs and receipts for any part of the system. CIE are disposed to operate in a unitary sense. Reports are published which indicate a certain breakdown of receipts and expenditure. It would require an enormous staff if CIE were required to prepare statements of receipts and expenditure for individual sections, either in relation to buses or trains.
As the Deputy knows perfectly well, CIE made a particular study of the Tramore-Waterford line. At one point they examined the savings that could be made, and the results of their findings were published in the Dáil on the occasion of the debate on the CIE report for the year, during which the question of the closing of railway lines was fully discussed for a period of over a week. There is no reason for CIE to be asked to make detailed statements of expenditure and receipts in connection with a particular section, the buses run there, when in fact the buses are used for various purposes in different parts of Waterford. The whole question is completely out of date and no longer has any validity.
Is the Minister aware that he broke down this figure for me? He gave me the figure when I brought him in on the Adjournment.
Surely the Minister is aware that the six miles of roadway between Waterford and Tramore are just a stage in the journey. There should be no difficulty at all. When CIE were saying they were losing money, they were able to get the facts.
I am quite satisfied there is no need to ask CIE to prepare figures of this kind. If the Deputy works out the actual loss made by CIE per mile of the journey to Waterford and if that loss were applied to the whole system, CIE would be losing another £3 million a year.
That is untrue. This service is losing a packet but the Minister will not come before the House and tell us, because he told us he was going to make it pay.