asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will make arrangements whereby free travel facilities may commence at 9.30 a.m. instead of 10.00 a.m.

The free travel facilities, by agreement with CIE, are designed to make use of surplus seating capacity available during off-peak periods where city bus services are concerned. These facilities are in fact available on city bus services from 9.45 a.m. and not 10 a.m. as stated in the question. This advance of the daily starting time was brought into force in November last following consultation with CIE.

Would the Parliamentary Secretary examine the position again with a view to giving further advantage to those people and possibly making the starting time at 9.30 a.m.?

As I indicated in my reply, the last improvement made as a result of discussions between my Department and CIE was in November last. I think it would be misleading to indicate that there will be any change in that situation in the immediate future. The present arrangement is the result of fairly recent discussions with CIE.

Does the Parliamentary Secretary not realise that the statement he made at the start of his reply does not in any way represent the thinking behind the introduction of this scheme by the former Government? It was not introduced to utilise spare bus capacity.

I would not be so aware because, quite frankly, I find it very difficult to reconcile Fianna Fáil's bleeding heart for humanity now with their record in Government.

Whatever about the Parliamentary Secretary's difficulty in that reconciliation I want to point out that what he said in the opening sentence of his reply does not represent the original purpose for which this humanitarian scheme was introduced by Fianna Fáil.

That is a statement.