asked the Minister for Transport the measures he proposes to take to deal with the CIE deficit for 1981.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - CIE Deficit.
1.
Measures for dealing with the CIE deficit for 1981 are currently under consideration but I am not yet in a position to say what these measures may be.
In the understandable absence of the Minister last week the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry was unable to give precise replies to any of the questions put to him.
Will the Deputy please confine himself to a question?
Can the Minister indicate when he proposes to have the debate in this House on the Mckinsey Report?
That is a separate question.
Can the Minister say if the proposal to close the Limerick to Rosslare Harbour train service is one of those items under consideration in relation to the CIE deficit?
No.
Would the Minister consider asking the management of CIE to undertake an assessment of what I would refer to as their derelicit sites throughout the country — their underutilised and uneconomical railway stations — by way of helping them in their deficit problems? I have been asking for the past 12 years that such an assessment be undertaken. The company could go into partnership with the planning authorities in the area of the comprehensive development of these railway stations. This is what happens in other places — in America, on the Continent and so on.
By coincidence, a schedule of properties is being prepared by CIE for my consideration.
Regarding my question, are there proposals either before the board of CIE or in the Minister's office in relation to the closure of the Limerick to Rosslare Harbour railway service?
There are no proposals in my Department to that effect.
Is there any such proposal before the board of CIE?
They have not informed me that there is any such proposal.
Will the Minister accept from me that there are?
If the Deputy has the information, why is he asking the question?
I am asking the question because of the contradictory reply I got last week from the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry. He told me that there are no such proposals but my information is that there are.
The Deputy is wrong so far as my information is concerned.
What is the estimated deficit for CIE for the current year?
I understand that the expected outturn will be in the region of £94 million. I might add for the information of the House that this expected outturn was known to the Government of which the Deputy was a junior Minister when the figure of £65 million was provided in the Estimate for the £94 milion outturn.
This must be the final supplementary.
It might also be of great significance to the general public. How and when does the Minister propose dealing with this expected outturn especially since it is part of the Government programme to take immediate action to deal with this matter?
As I have indicated, the position was compounded for me by the failure of the previous Government to budget properly for this situation. It was compounded further by their failure to provide for proper fare increases at the time they were predicted. In that connection I might mention that when answering questions in May last, the Deputy, as he was entitled to do, concealed from the House the amount that those fares increases would have produced. If the proper measures had been taken then I might not now have a problem of this magnitude.
I am calling Question No. 2.
Is the Minister saying that during the period in which he has been in office he has not taken any action to cut this budget deficit?
I have not said that.
That is what I understood him to say.