Vol. 414 No. 2
13 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if he has received an application for a subvention from a person (details supplied) on behalf of the Lough Swilly and Londonderry Bus Company; the total grants or fees paid to the bus company out of public funds since it was taken over by the person; if it is intended to approve the application for the subvention; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company applied in late 1989 for the restoration of the special subvention arrangements in relation to the company which were terminated with effect from 30 June 1987. Under those arrangements financial support had previously been made available by CIE to the company in respect of the provision of public transport services in north east Donegal. In the period covered by the Deputy's question, namely 1 April 1981 to 30 June 1987 a total amount of £1.8 million was made available by CIE to the company under the subvention arrangements.
In relation to the application for the restoration of special subvention arrangements, the owner of the company and representatives of the workforce were advised earlier this year that agreement on the future ownership and structure of the company would have to be settled before the application could be considered. I understand, however, that it has not been possible for the parties to reach agreement on these issues.
In these circumstances, and having regard to the legislative proposals for promoting competition in the bus sector which I am currently finalising, I decided that it would not be appropriate to consider any application for payment of State subvention in respect of private bus services until the proposed new legislation has been enacted.
Is the Minister aware of a letter from the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company to their workers to the effect that the Minister had agreed in principle——
The Deputy should know that quotations at Question Time are not in order.
I will rephrase my question. Mr. Doherty, who owns this company, has told the workforce that the Minister has given a commitment to reinstate immediately the subvention. Does the Minister wish to deny that?
Yes, I deny it most vehemently. I have given no such commitment. In a letter from my Department dated 12 June 1991 it was pointed out to the ICTU representative who inquired about the matter that Mr. Doherty was totally incorrect in asserting that he had received any such undertaking. I met Mr. Doherty in my Department, with officials present, to discuss his application and I never met him in my Department at any other time. The minute of that meeting is quite clear and the correspondence is available for the inspection of any Member if they so wish. It is quite clear from the officials who attended that meeting and from the subsequent letter to the ICTU that no commitment was given but rather quite the contrary.
Mr. Doherty would not say so. Would Mr. Doherty say something that would be incorrect?
Did the Minister discuss anything else with him?
I am very anxious to tease out this matter with the Minister. If this is the type of private entrepreneur the Minister chooses to run a public transport system will he give the House a commitment that Mr. Doherty has no outstanding PRSI or tax liabilities to the State given that he was the subject of a High Court case taken by the Revenue Commissioners?
The Chair would much prefer that names of this kind were not mentioned. I would be grateful if the Deputy was more circumspect about the matter.
The Minister has clearly and categorically outlined how he envisages public transport being run in this country. If this is the type of entrepreneur he has in mind God help those who have to use public transport. The Minister is about to bring more chaos into the city and long distance transport systems unless he considers an integrated system using Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, which is the key to improving the situation.
The Deputy's antipathy to the private sector is well known. It is not my job to answer for Mr. Doherty or anybody else in regard to his taxation affairs. Let me say that that company are not in receipt of State funds at present, but were for a limited period up to 1987, until this Government stopped them. I have no proposals to reinstate it, quite the contrary, and in fact I have made that clear at all times.
Incidentally, in the course of my Department examining the cost involved, the cost of running the service by either the private sector or the public sector was much of a muchness and both produced very similar figures for running the routes around north-east Donegal. We looked at the figures in both cases. One cannot draw any conclusions on the role of the private sector from one incident, no more than one can draw conclusions about the future efficiency of the public sector from the performance of one public sector company.
