With the consent of the Chair, I shall do so. On the question of the Arran service raised by Deputy Bartley, I will look into that matter. The payment to the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Service was discussed last year. It was proposed to make a payment of £1,500 for the three years, 1935, 1936 and 1937 to enable the railway company to raise the necessary capital to effect the reorganisation of their entire undertaking which was made possible under the recent railway and road transport legislation, and because it was found necessary to provide incidentally for the railway fixed charges, and consequent compensation payments to railway workers who might become disemployed. This contribution provided was to be made for three years by the Government of the Saorstát and together with a similar contribution made by the Government of Northern Ireland towards the railway fixed charges will enable these liabilities to which I have referred to be discharged without endangering the financial stability of the undertaking during the period of reorganisation. A similar sum, according to that arrangement, will require to be provided next year, but after that there will be no further financial assistance given to the company.
With regard to the question of the report of the Donegal Transport Committee I refer Deputy Dillon to a reply I gave yesterday to a Parliamentary Question asked by Deputy Brady. I shall now, with the permission of the Chair, deal with the request put to me by Deputy Morrissey. It is correct to say that one or two points dealing with transport services were raised yesterday, which I had not time to deal with. One was the acquisition by the Great Southern Railways Company of the Galway Omnibus Company. The other was certain increases in charges which the Great Southern Railways Company have given notice of their intention to effect. So far as the acquisition of the Galway omnibus service is concerned, by the Great Southern Railways Company, no decision upon that matter has yet been made. The Act provides for such amalgamation of road transport services and indicates that the Minister has discretion in deciding whether or not he will agree to any such proposal. He is entitled to give due consideration to any representations that may be made to him by interested parties on the ground that the proposed acquisition or amalgamation is not in the public interest. I may say that the whole idea of the Road Transport Act was to secure such amalgamation and was based on the idea that competition in transport was not desirable; that it promoted inefficiency, led to bad conditions of employment and, furthermore, jeopardised the stability of the main services of the country.
In a country like this, with its scattered population, it is difficult to provide for efficient transport service except on such basis as that for which the Road Transport Act of 1933 provided. Therefore, it must be assumed that the Minister in considering any proposal to amalgamate existing services, with the service of the Great Southern Railway Company, is bound to be sympathetic with the idea of amalgamation although in individual cases the public interest may be clearly against it, and his decision contrary to the request of the railway company. That has arisen in a few areas. But we have set out to establish one national transport undertaking, subject to public control as to its rates for the transportation of passengers and merchandise and under obligation to provide in every part of the country the most efficient forms of transport which the requirements of each area demand. Therefore, while I do not want to be taken as prejudging any report that may be made to me with regard to the Galway service and the acquisition of that company by the Great Southern Railway, nevertheless it may be assumed that unless a very definite case is made to the contrary my decision is likely to be in favour of amalgamation. I have no functions concerned with the charges made by the Great Southern Railway. Any proposal to increase or vary rates has to be submitted to the Railway Tribunal, before which interested parties can appear and make their case, and it is the Railway Tribunal decides on the proposals of the company. I may, however, point out that the situation which existed here in 1933 was one in which transport services were being sold generally at less than the cost of production, with the result that not merely were conditions of employment in transport services very bad but the financial stability and, in fact, the continued existence of the main transport undertakings was in jeopardy. When the Road Transport Act of 1933 was before the Dáil it was approved of by all Parties. In that year, everybody was keenly alive to the precarious position that existed in respect of public transport and as to the need for some such scheme of reorganisation as was provided for. Nowadays, when conditions are very definitely improved, some Deputies are, perhaps, inclined to forget the circumstances that these Acts were designed to remedy and are, perhaps, more concerned with the individual steps of reorganisation and the effect of these individual steps upon the fortunes of individuals.
The position, therefore, was that any improvement in our transport services or any reorganisation scheme was bound to involve an increase of transport charges to an economic level. It is the concern of the Railway Tribunal to ensure that they do not rise beyond an economic level. The obligation of the Railway Tribunal is such that they must ensure that the scale of charges approved of by them, having regard to the anticipated volume of traffic likely to arise in any one year, will be such as to secure for the Great Southern Railway Company the standard net revenue which the tribunal has determined. Therefore, when any proposal arises from the railway company to vary its rates of charge for merchandise generally, or in particular areas, it is entirely a matter for the Railway Tribunal, and the parties who think their interests are likely to be affected adversely by these changes should take steps to ensure that they are represented before the tribunal and that their case is heard. It is true that the Department of Industry and Commerce is, as a rule, represented at sittings of the tribunal, but the functions of the Department are not to ensure merely that increases of charges do not take place. Its function is primarily to ensure that the general economy of the railway company and the main transport organisations are not undermined, and in particular, that the standard net revenue is secured. In fact, for a long time, it was the primary purpose of the Department's representative at the Railway Tribunal to object to proposals to reduce charges. That situation is changing now, perhaps, and the purpose of the Department in relation to this matter is merely to ensure that all considerations are taken into account—to secure, on the one hand, that consideration is given to the interests of the users of the transport system and, on the other hand, to secure that the economy of the system is not adversely affected.
