Would the Minister not agree that he exudes an air of complacency about the bus fares in Dublin which are barely affordable by middle class people, never mind working class people in the outer suburbs. Would the Minister give an assurance to those hard pressed people that he intends to do something about this? Would he not agree that as part of his plans for the one person operation of buses, fares were to be reduced by 20 per cent in real terms?

With regard to the latter part of the Deputy's question, the one-person bus operation has not been put in place fully. Two of the unions have accepted, the union with the vast majority of the workers and another smaller union. One union has still not acceded to the company's request. Second, I reject the idea that I am complacent about fares. As an indication of that lack of complacency on the part of myself and the Government, we refused to give the level of increased fares asked for by CIE on the most recent occasion and it was particularly with an eye to the hardship of the people who are using the bus services continually that we did just that.

Would the Minister not agree that the fare increase was in excess of the rate of inflation now running at 1.8 per cent and that every year now CIE seem to congratulate themselves on having their fare increases at less than they applied for but greater than the rate of inflation?

The fare increase was 2.5 per cent and that was the rate of inflation at that time. I am glad to say that the rate of inflation is dropping.

Is the Minister aware of the very severe hardship being experienced by people, especially those living in the outer suburbs who have to, for instance, commute to the Department of Social Welfare at enormous expense or, perhaps, to the differential rent section of Dublin Corporation about rent arrears and, in the process, pay as much as £5 in fares for themselves and their children? Is the Minister going to do anything about that.?

We are having repetition.

I am fully aware of the hardship of the people who are travelling on the services and also that this House is called upon to vote about £16 million per annum to Bus Átha Cliath to keep it going.