Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We all have tussles with various individuals. It is more than a tussle to say:

What a pity there was no strike last Thursday. Some of us were longing for it. If the trades union leaders had called a strike they would have suffered bloody noses.

It does not seem that the Minister has changed his views one iota in the year since that article was written. The stakes are very high in this dispute and it is no longer simply about the take-home pay of Bus Éireann workers, the future of Bus Éireann or public transport services, important as all of those issues are. The dispute is about the culture of work we want to have. Do we want to have a culture in which a chief executive hotshot can be appointed and, less than a couple of months into the job, propose cuts of between €3,000 and €6,000 in the take-home pay of men and women who have worked in the job for more than 30 years and then tell them to take it or leave it?

Do we want a culture of low pay, zero-hour contracts and privatisation? Alternatively, do we want a culture that involves half decent pay rates, good public services and the right to an effective trade union representation? That is what is at stake. All who want a civilised option will back the Bus Éireann workers and any action that they, in conjunction with Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann workers, deem necessary to win a victory for workers' rights, decency and justice. That is all I want to say on the matter.