asked the Minister for Communications the actual outturn of capital invested in the production of buses for CIE in 1984 and the number of double-decker buses delivered to CIE in 1984.

The CIE bus acquisition programme for 1984 consisted of 120 city single-deck buses at a cost of £15.365 million. There were no deliveries of double-deck buses to CIE in 1984.

Could the Minister give me the figures again?

They were £15.365 million and 120 single deck city buses

Are school buses not included?

Not in that programme.

Would the Minister like to say if his Department are happy with the arrangement between CIE and the bus company with regard to this capital investment?

As Deputy Wilson must be aware, the whole area of bus building in CIE has a rather tortuous history, especially in recent years. The arrangement of recent years worked reasonably satisfactorily. It has not been without its problems and is not without problems at the moment. There are criticisms of the situation which some people might consider valid. Discussions are going on between CIE and GAC to see how all of this can be improved.

Would the Minister say that it is difficult to get precise information about the operation and that this is very frustrating, seeing that the Minister, his Department and this House are responsible for the investment? Would he like to indicate, regarding the argument used not by this company from which this company took over, that they were going to develop exports in order to get capital investment from the Government, how far that project has gone? Some of us were sceptical about Egypt and Iran and we were told that they were about to sell buses there.

I am not responsible for the company, as the Deputy will understand. It is a private company.

That is the whole trouble. It is a matter of information. We provided them with £16 million.