I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £92,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1959, for certain Transport Services; for Grants for Harbours; for the Salaries and Expenses of the Marine Service (Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1952, and the Foreshore Act, 1933 (No. 12 of 1933)); for certain Protective Equipment for Ships; for certain payments in respect of Compensation including the cost of medical treatment (No. 19 of 1946); and for the Coast Life Saving Service.
The purpose of the Supplementary Estimate is to provide for a further sum of £212,000 for C.I.E. The major part of that, namely, £120,680 is, I think, a book transfer of money which was provided in the current year's estimate for the G.N.R. Board, but which was not paid out to the G.N.R. Board before the merger with C.I.E. on 1st October last. The balance of £92,000 is to cover increased losses on the part of the G.N.R. undertaking not budgeted for when the original Estimates were prepared.
Deputies will recollect that the amount included for C.I.E. in the Vote for Transport and Marine Services in this year is £3,204,300. Of that amount, £793,300 is for repayment to the Central Fund, in accordance with the requirements of the Transport Act of 1950, of advances made to meet interest payment on transport stock in 1957-58. A further amount of £793,300 is also included to enable C.I.E. to pay interest on transport stock in the current financial year without recourse to the Central Fund as in previous years. The balance of £1,617,700 is to cover capital expenditure and expenditure on renewals and replacements to the extent that working profit, before charging depreciation and interest on transport stock, falls short of this expenditure.
The G.N.R. undertaking within the State, apart from the Dundalk Works, was merged with C.I.E. on 1st October last and the losses and capital expenditure of the two undertakings were also merged. Losses and capital expenses of the G.N.R. Board from 1st April, 1958, to 30th September, 1958, were met out of the provision for the board in the Vote. The unexpended balance of the G.N.R. Board in the Vote was £120,680. The additional amount of £212,000 required is entirely attributable to the portion of the G.N.R. taken over by C.I.E. If, therefore, the merger had not taken place, C.I.E. would not require any increase on the provision in the Vote. When account is taken of the unexpended balance of £120,680 in the Vote for the G.N.R. Board, which falls to be surrendered to C.I.E., the additional amount to be voted for C.I.E. is £92,000.
The financial year now coming to an end is a transitional one for C.I.E. Under recent legislation, as the House is aware, they are under a statutory obligation now to eliminate losses by the end of the next five years. To assist them in that task an annual Grant-in-Aid of £1,175,000 will be provided for each of the next five years under that legislation. That obligation is, of course, a very formidable one and it would be unfair and unreasonable to ask C.I.E. to embark on the crucial five-year period encumbered by borrowing to meet losses arising during the present financial year, especially as these losses are attributable to the part of the G.N.R. undertaking taken over by C.I.E. in October. I am asking the House, therefore, to approve the Supplementary Estimate and give C.I.E. the clean start which it was intended by legislation they should be given.
