Mr. Dermot O'Leary:

The elephant in the room is the legal opinion being sought. All answers to all questions avoid the elephant in the room. It is fundamental that the issue is addressed, hopefully today, by CIÉ and that it will agree once and for all to fund that legal advice.

Let me be very clear about the Workplace Relations Commission, the trade union and our colleague engaged at the commission in good faith. There seems to be much agreement between Mr. Gill and me this morning. It is surprising because we could not get agreement all along and all of a sudden we are getting agreement. We agree that trust has broken down. The fundamental problem with the Workplace Relations Commission is that in recent years the Minister has said he cannot intervene in industrial disputes. The ramifications go far beyond any industrial dispute.

There are statutory instruments and legislation covering it but, in the absence of legal opinion, we are not at liberty to engage with the Workplace Relations Commission on behalf of our membership. The commission is a fine institution at which a lot of good business is done by trade unions and companies. I wrote a letter to the board and sent a pack asking for independent legal advice. I also asked that, because of the complexity of the issues, the forum should not be an industrial relations forum.

In response to Deputy Troy, I said that many decisions were made by successive Administrations in, for example, 1990 and 2005, and including those relating to FRS standards. They were all passed by the politicians in the Legislature. The answers I give to questions come with a caveat until we get full sight of all the issues at the heart of the problem. There is nothing to stop the Legislature removing CIÉ from the requirement to be in the funding proposal or part of the minimum funding standard because there are many organisations in such a position. If, after full sight of all the facts, politicians want one there is a role for them.

I am happy to hear Senator Feighan's egalitarian view of trade unions and their entitlement to represent their members. His great leader made a pitch for banning strikes in essential services as part of his campaign to become Taoiseach and the Senator will not need me to spell out our view of his party. He asked about staff meetings. The only time our members do not provide a service is when they are on strike. Thankfully, we live in a democracy that allows members to engage in industrial action against an employer if necessary and we will never apologise for that.