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

That is interesting.

I am going to talk about John and Brendan. John is a friend of mine and a neighbour. He has been a Bus Éireann driver for many years and has given many years of quality service to the company. He drives on Sundays and gets double time.

Under the proposal, he would get basic time plus 20%. He would lose €96 per week. He works overtime. The proposed overtime cuts would result in him losing a further €30 per week. He drives into the county and is entitled to a meal allowance. Under the proposals, he would lose a further €10 in that regard. That is a total of €136 per week. In the course of a year, this would amount to somewhere between €6,500 and €7,000 and that is after having no increase in basic pay for eight years. Mr. Hernan might reflect on that and realise that guarantees about safeguarding pay and not targeting staff sound a bit hollow in the context of a €6,500 a year pay cut. There is talk about competition,. In effect, however, this is a race to the bottom.

Mr. Hernan spoke about responsible unions. Is there a union in Ireland which takes its responsibilities to its members seriously and which would consider accepting cutbacks that are far in excess of any wage reduction proposals put forward by the troika when it was in charge of running the country? In fact, that is a recipe not just for provoking a reaction from Bus Éireann staff but from all public transport staff and, perhaps, all other workers, particularly as a horrendous precedent would be set if Mr. Hernan's proposals are carried through.

In contrast, we have secrecy in terms of the severance package for the former CEO, Martin Nolan, and the former HR boss, Joe Kenny. I referred to Brendan McCarthy, the new HR boss who runs the Stratis Consulting company-----