Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The CIE group is struggling with a very difficult financial situation. On 24 July last, the Government decided to provide additional funding of €36 million to CIE to ensure that the companies could continue to operate for the rest of 2012. This would bring the total subvention for this year to €278 million, higher than the subvention level for 2010 and the fifth highest level of subvention ever.  At this very difficult time for the public finances, it was not easy to find a large amount of additional funds. It involved very difficult decisions in terms of having to divert funding from other very worthwhile and important projects and initiatives and imposing sacrifices on others.

To date, none of the additional €36 million subvention has been paid over to CIE, but up to €36 million is still available.  I want to see significant progress being made on the development of a realistic, sustainable and robust business plan by CIE to deal with the current economic realities; cost reductions with the CIE group and employee support for same; the sale of non-core assets; and the securing of new credit facilities.

At the time of the announcement it appeared that these were advanced but unfortunately, despite a lot of hard work and best efforts, insufficient progress has been made to date. The Minister of Sate, Deputy Kelly, and I are meeting regularly with the chairman and senior executives  of the CIE companies and have met with union representatives as well. These various avenues are currently being explored and may reduce the need for the level of funding required.

Ultimately, however, it needs to be understood that if required, the additional funding for this year only provides a very short breathing space to CIE. It is essential that the management and staff in the CIE companies use this time productively to discuss and implement proposals to cut costs that can help to address the serious financial position in which the CIE group finds itself.

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