Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's plea and I know it is genuinely felt. I think it arises from a misunderstanding that I have a role to play in an industrial dispute. I do not have that role. I repeat that I am a shareholder; I am not a party to this industrial dispute. There is nothing I would like to see more than a sensible and satisfactory end to this. It is worrying a large number of bus drivers and staff in Bus Éireann, and they are justified in having worries. They read in the newspapers every day about threats to their livelihoods, and that is awful for them. There is nothing I would like to do more than to sort out this problem for them. Let us acknowledge that rural communities also feel threatened and vulnerable, as does the taxpayer. I assure the Deputy it would not help to resolve this dispute, certainly in any long-term way, if I were to get involved because it would give a misleading impression. The dispute will be resolved, as were the Luas and Dublin Bus disputes, by my staying out of it and by the machinery of the State. It has been painful and it is regrettable, but my intervention would do more damage than good.