Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I met the leadership of the unions. In as straight and robust way as I could I made my position clear. I am somewhat disappointed I am not getting a positive response, given the urgency of the matter. So much is happening in the Department of Transport that I cannot recall if it was last week or the previous week that I met them. A reasonable amount of time has passed since I spoke with them. I have urged them to respond, given the issues involved and notwithstanding a technical result in terms of a judgment on a narrow piece of information. The arbitrator was keen to point out they were not judging the issues and felt there was a real problem and a danger to road safety if the issue was not resolved. This is an opportunity to send a message again today. I am anxious to hear proposals which will include the shortest possible timeframe to remove the backlog.

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