Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I referred to a type of zero-hour contract. It states part-time and temporary drivers will form part of the weekly rosters. It states a minimum fixed-hour working arrangement will be agreed to in advance with part-time and temporary drivers. It states payment will be for revenue hours covered and that the company may, on a short or longer term basis, utilise part-time or temporary staff to avoid inefficient duty workings and-or to fill staff vacancies. If that is not an example of the exploitation of the private sector being brought into the heart of the semi-State sector, I do not know what it is.

The Minister gives the impression that he has about as much responsibility for resolving the dispute as the man on the back of the No. 8 bus to Mayfield. He is the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, the sole shareholder in the company, and has a responsibility to its workforce, its 100,000 passengers and the small businesses that are already taking a hit. He has a responsibility to the schoolchildren who were left stranded at the side of the road in New Ross, County Wexford on Monday when their school bus broke down and there were no mechanics or inspectors available to intervene.

I do not subscribe to the view that the Minister's refusal to intervene is because he is lazy. I think he knows exactly what he is doing. He knows that a failure to intervene will lead to massive pay cuts, privatisation or Bus Éireann going to the wall. He knows that intervention means bringing a cheque book and increasing the public subvention for a public transport service which is severely underfunded. I think he has an agenda. Will he comment on this?