Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My first question relates to Iarnród Éireann. Mr. Noone put before the committee information that is shocking. It shows that the Irish Rail subvention has been cut from a little over €180 million to €98 million in seven years. That is a cut of almost 50%. Mr. O'Leary stated, "The safety of rail is second to none but in future years, we will only avoid catastrophe by blind luck because the State is not investing enough money to maintain rolling stock, vehicles, stations, depots and lines, never mind increasing services". The chief executive officer of Irish Rail was before the committee two weeks ago and he gave his opinion on the issue of cutbacks and rail safety. I am interested in the opinions of the NBRU and SIPTU representatives. How close are we to cutting it fine on rail safety because of cutbacks? How close is Irish Rail to having to shut down services and lines in order to keep the public safe rather than taking a chance? I am interested in our guests' perspective on that.

On the issue of pension schemes for bus workers, Mr. O'Leary said the modest defined benefit pension of most bus workers at €125 per week after 40 years service and contributing almost €40,000 is under grave threat due to funding cuts and Government rules on bond allocation. Could he provide more information on the character of that grave threat?

Mr. Noone referred to sectoral employment orders. My understanding of the position is that in respect of what the NTA calls "franchising" - but what everybody else who has eyes in their head knows is privatisation - of the 10% of routes, he was given a so-called triple lock guarantee.

It comprised a registered employment agreement, a sectoral employment order and legislation. I understand that triple lock guarantee is not yet in place. Will the witnesses give us some information on the up-to-date position?

Mr. Taft suggested some projects this committee might consider. I am not sure if he is in a position to take them all on board but we should consider the first two suggestions, namely, a detailed study of subventions to public transport and public bus services in other European cities compared with those in Dublin, Cork and one other Irish town or city, and the commissioning of a ridership survey, given that the current one is 43 years old. I would like the committee to consider whether we might take action on one or both of those.

I am interested in Mr. O'Leary's comment that the CIE companies are fully compliant and stringently observe all aspects of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and driving regulation. Unfortunately some - not all - private operators infringe and ignore the rules, giving unfair competitive advantage and potentially putting lives at risk. Will Mr. O'Leary give some more information on that? I am cognisant of the fact that we are not getting into all the ins and outs of industrial relations problems at the moment.

Mr. O'Leary referred to a doomsday scenario that Bus Éireann may attempt to impose unilateral changes to terms and conditions. We have been hearing about this for a while. The Minister was here two weeks ago and was not particularly interested in commenting on it. Do we have any information on the detail of that? This includes the hiving off of the Expressway service from other Bus Éireann services and reduced terms and conditions. I know there is no precise proposal on the table. What might it be? Would it be a 1%, 10% or 50% reduction? Will the witnesses give us a general idea of the scale of the reduction?