asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will give details of (a) revenue received from Cork city bus services for the past 12 months, (b) the number of passengers carried during the same period, (c) the amount paid in wages to (i) drivers and conductors and (ii) maintenance staff during the same period, and (d) the amount paid in salaries to (i) inspectors (ii) clerks and (iii) supervisors and managers during the same period.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cork City Bus Services.
3.
Mr. Barrett
The information sought by the Deputy is not shown separately in the Accounts of CIE furnished to me in accordance with section 34 of the Transport Act, 1950.
CIE is required to the provide a public transport service throughout the country and to conduct the whole undertaking so as to ensure that, after taking into account the annual subsidy of £2 million payable to it, its expenditure shall not be greater than its revenue. It would be invidious, therefore, to prepare and publish separate accounts, receipts and expenditure for different areas of the country.
Does the Minister seriously suggest that he does not know the revenue earned by CIE in the city of Cork? If that information is not available to him in the accounts submitted to him, is it made available to him in any other form?
There are accounts presented in the Pacemaker Report giving an analysis of the profitable and unprofitable services for the provincial cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. These figures are also distinguished in the annual report. This is sufficient indication to the House of what the general profit position is to enable them to analyse the CIE accounts to see how far the separate sectors are making or losing money. Separate accounts are given for rural bus services and for Dublin city bus services.
Would it not be courteous and reasonable to expect the Minister to furnish information reasonably requested of him by a responsible Deputy and to analyse the figures made available to him rather than to ask the Deputy to do it himself? Obviously, from the Minister's supplementary reply, the Minister is in possession of the information sought and is being excessively discourteous in withholding it from the House.
The Deputy has misunderstood the position. The figures for Cork city are not prepared separately. I said figures for the provincial cities.
If the Minister does not know them, he ought to know them. He is not doing his job if he does not.
It is obviously unnecessary for me in my general supervision of CIE to know the separation of expenditure and receipts from all the sectors of CIE. If I had reason to believe there was some fearful distortion in the running of the Cork city services, I would naturally make inquiries, but I have no such information to lead me to believe that.
Deputy Barrett is now asking the Minister to make such inquiries. The information sought is in the possession of a junior clerk in the accounts department of CIE. It is shameful for the Minister to have to get up here and announce that he is unable to impart such information to a Member of the House.
"Unwilling to impart" would be more accurate.