The CIE group of companies has engaged in special pleading in its annual report for the year 2000. Traffic congestion and low fares were identified as the major difficulties facing the bus companies, while low fares and a strike by ILDA members affected the rail service. There isn't a whisper about inadequate services, poor management, disillusioned staff and generally poisonous relations between management and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke.
Blaming traffic gridlock for notional losses of £40 million in operating costs makes for a startling headline. It helps to justify an increase of £45 million in the level of State grant, to a total of £161 million, for the year. And it deflects attention from an overrun of £42 million on the cost of constructing a mini CTC signalling system for Iarnrod ╔ireann, now being investigated by an Oireachtas Committee.
CI╔ is a mess, because of chronic, long-term under-funding by successive Governments; a tradition of low fares and poor pay structures; indifferent management and political interference in industrial relations.
Two years ago, a major investment programme amounting to £2.1 billion was announced in the seven-year National Development Plan. It included a LUAS light rail system for Dublin, new rolling stock and upgraded track for Iarnrod ╔ireann and the DART, and a modern transport fleet for Dublin Bus and Bus ╔ireann.
Those projects are now well under way. But the investment of large amounts of money within the companies inevitably gave rise to pay demands and industrial relations friction.
Because of these developments, CI╔ companies have lost heavily in terms of public confidence and support. Services appear scheduled to suit the company, rather than consumers. Mainline trains are dangerously overcrowded at peak times. DART services are frequently cancelled. And bus times are unreliable, with the exception of new services on Quality Bus Corridors. These problems are capable of solution if the workforce is motivated and willing and the management efficient.
For the third year in succession, CI╔ has published its annual report without holding a press conference or an official briefing. Given the importance of the company and the scale of the State investment in its services, this is unacceptable. In making a case for fare increases, the company notes that Irish rail fares are the second cheapest in Europe and that bus subsidies are higher in many other European capitals. That may be so. But the bottom line where CI╔ is concerned is that while operating costs went up significantly, the number of passengers carried by both Bus ╔ireann and Iarnrod ╔ireann went down. That is the responsibility of management.