When the debate was adjourned I was dealing with the increases in ESB and CIE charges. There are a couple of important points that I wish to put on record in order to emphasise the seriousness of these price rises. I shall give an example of a situation that could arise in my constituency and show what these increases would mean to a family in the Ballyfermot or Tallaght areas.
The fare from both these areas to the city centre is being increased from 15p to 20p. Let us say that the head of the household commutes from his home to the city centre in the morning and returns in the evening. In his case the increase will be 50p per week and if, say, there are two other members of the family working in town the total increase will be £1.50 for the three of them. Assuming that the housewife shops either in town or at a shopping centre on two occasions each week the increase in fares for her would be 20p while a schoolgoing child would pay a minimum increase of 20p also. If we assume that visits to a dispensary or a hospital would involve 20p extra, we find that the total increase for the average family would be £2.10 per week.
Taking a centrally heated house where they use electricity for cooking and for heating this increase will add an additional burden to the extent of £1.30p. The increase in fares and the increase in ESB charges will cost the normal family £3.40 a week. This is a fairly substantial increase.
Families will also have to face an additional burden because prices will increase due to the increase in freight charges. The substantial increase in the cost of transport and energy will have a considerable impact. The example I have given is fairly typical of the situation in a Dublin constituency and in some rural constituencies the impact will be even greater. Price increases must follow increases in freight rates.
There is cause for concern about these substantial increases. Efforts will have to be made to relieve the situation in some way. Yesterday I mentioned some of the areas in which the Minister might consider making concessions available to the travelling public. The substantial increase in fares is a cause of concern not only to Members of this House but also to the trade unions, the housewives and the workers. We believed that the Government had made a long term projection when they came to the House and sought an additional £14 million for CIE. We believed that they were looking further ahead than a month or two. Now we find that the projection was much shorter than we anticipated. One would have thought that the subsidy required at that time would have been sufficient to enable CIE to ensure the continuity of employment and services and to ensure a greater degree of efficiency if that could be achieved. Now we wonder if the Minister will be back to the House in two or three weeks, or two or three months, looking for an additional subsidy or additional price increase of one type or another.
CIE will be affected by the ESB increases and the ESB will be affected by the CIE increases. Considerable damage has been done and will be done. We must be concerned about the damage that will be done to the economy as a result of the substantial increases. This must be of major concern to the Government as, indeed, it is to the Opposition and to the people. We hope that the Minister and the Government will ensure that, when demands are made to the House to make subsidies available, or when price increases are sought, the House will be given long term projections so that when we examine the situation it is in its entirety.
There are references in this book to personnel and to corrective measures in relation to the ESB. We do not desire to see redundancies or unemployment, but I believe they will follow these substantial increases because some firms will become less competitive. In the export market we will become less competitive when we use the national transport system for the transportation of goods. Industrialists, retailers and wholesalers who will be availing of the CIE services will have to increase their charges if they are to maintain their profit margin if, indeed, some of them have a profit margin. With an increase of 25 per cent it will be almost uneconomic to use CIE to transport goods.
As I asked yesterday, is this a device to divert from CIE the business of industrialists, retailers, wholesalers and farmers? Every transport increase is a case for concern but particularly an increase in the section which hauls heavy transportable goods. Any weakening of our position in the export market has a serious effect on our balance of payments. When we become less competitive more unemployment must follow. We had hoped that by now there would have been an easing of the unemployment problem and that we would be returning to normal. Such is not the case. The facts are that there is still an upward spiral. These increases will force the spiral upwards rather than downwards.
In the Dublin constituencies we are first to feel the effects of CIE increases. When I meet some of my constituents one would think I was personally responsible for increasing the fares. That shows the discontent there is amongst the workers who feel that the recent pay increase has been eroded to a substantial degree. Some workers have to pay 50p to commute to and from work. Some have to take a second bus and some have to go home from the factory for their meals. It means that the increased charges will be substantial. Workers' concessions in relation to travel by CIE should be re-examined. Such concessions apply in some sectors. I accept that monthly tickets are available in some areas but it should be remembered that a number of workers do not commute to the same part of the city daily. Such people should be catered for by the company.
Special concessions should also be given to those who must travel frequently to hospitals and dispensaries for medical treatment. A lot of those people are in receipt of social welfare benefits. The increased charges imposed by CIE affect the weaker section of the community who must also meet the increased ESB charges. In my view those people should be given special concessions on buses and commuter trains. It should also be remembered that it will now cost those entitled to social welfare benefits a lot more to travel to employment exchanges to collect their weekly allowances.
Because of the drastic increase in CIE and ESB charges the tourist industry will be affected. People are being encouraged to spend their holidays in their own country to stimulate an industry that has been badly hit by the world recession, but the increase in these charges will mean that a holiday here will cost a lot more than it did last year. Those increases must be passed on by the hotels to the customers. Hotel proprietors have to pay more for the transport of food to their premises and for cooking, heating and light. We must face this problem with responsibility and foresight.
When applications for increase are submitted consideration must be had for the weaker sections of the community. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare has informed us that there are 25,000 people living below the poverty line, but the Government by sanctioning the savage increases in ESB and CIE charges had little thought for those people. They have done nothing to curtail the unemployment figures. I was pleased to learn that a watchdog committee is to be established by the Minister to oversee developments of semi-State bodies. While this goes some of the way towards meeting our wishes a lot remains to be done by the Minister. I hope the Minister will accede to my request to give relief to the weaker sections of the community.