Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy asked me one question in his contribution: whether I said yesterday that I did not see the logic of the stoppage. I said this. Yesterday's dispute was about the fact that an independent chairman had not been appointed. That is what I passed comment on and that is what the dispute was about. All the other issues the Deputy raised are interesting and I hope they are debated in due course.

The reason I said what I did was because the Minister for Transport met the general secretary of the ICTU and representatives of the CIE unions on 26 January. I was involved in the meetings around this. Arising from that meeting, it was agreed to resume discussions under an independent chairperson. Following this meeting, officials from the Department of Transport were in regular contact with the trade unions regarding the basis for the resumed discussions and the appointment of an independent chairperson, as sought by the unions.

Following the confirmation from the trade unions on Friday, 30 January that they were prepared to re-enter discussions, the Department of Transport and the Department of the Taoiseach jointly approached the Labour Relations Commission on 3 February seeking the nomination of an independent chairperson. A number of issues regarding the role and selection of the appropriate person who would act as an independent chair caused difficulties for the Labour Relations Commission. This delayed the nomination of the independent chairperson until 13 February — last Friday — when Kevin Foley was nominated by the LRC and was accepted by both sides. This was the position when I left my office on Friday last. Even though we had decided to resume talks, the unions decided to proceed with the industrial action. I said that I did not see the logic of this.

See this speech in context