Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is the principal shareholder and cannot tell us this information, yet management is writing to various people stating that losses were 41% higher for the first two months of this year than the same period a year ago. Surely the Minister, when he saw it in yesterday's newspapers, would have got his people to state what exactly is the figure. Surely we, as parliamentarians, have a right to know the figure. Further, is the figure for 2016 €9.4 million? The board of Bus Éireann is due to sign off on those figures. How has the Minister engaged with his representatives on the board or on that final report? What is the point of having a Dáil if we can go onto rte.ieand see the figures that the Minister - the principal shareholder - is refusing to give here. We might as well not be here. It is time for the Minister to take his head out of the sand in terms of what is going on in Bus Éireann. I have just come from a presentation by Transport Infrastructure Ireland about the roads programme, which is another disaster. We all agree that there is a serious issue with Bus Éireann and we want to help and be constructive. However, by denying information to Members of this Parliament, the Minister is not being helpful.

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