Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the regulatory situation, the Department of Transport has received union agreement in recent years on the issuing of additional licences, especially for new routes. We have not started issuing licences and creating competition on existing routes but there are many new services. The total liberalisation of the market, which would open it to competition, is under ongoing consideration but many problems exist in terms of getting agreement from those in the transport sector.

There is a progressive movement of new services and Dublin Bus and CIE have agreed to move to new areas of the city and implement cross city routes, which have gone well. In fairness to Dublin Bus, incidents of industrial action at the company have been rare in recent years and I cannot recall when the last serious, all-out dispute occurred. There have been sporadic disputes at various stations, such as the one taking place at the moment.

I see this dispute as neither regulatory in nature nor pertaining to social partnership. Conflicts of this type should not happen but occur from time to time. I deplore the hardship that has been inflicted on the travelling public as a result of this dispute at Dublin Bus. I recognise that genuine issues are involved in this matter but that is not the point. The issues have been through the conciliation process at the Labour Relations Commission and are subject to a Labour Court recommendation. The issues have been through all the relevant strands of the process and a clear decision has been made. We know that recommendations of this type from the Labour Court are not binding. Substituting old-fashioned conflict for sensible negotiation and agreement benefits neither the company nor its employees. On the contrary, in a world where customers expect other options, as Deputy Kenny said, disputes like this are self-defeating and all sides should recognise that.

I am sure that creative solutions can be found to this dispute, like any other dispute. In reply to Deputy Kenny's question, I urge the parties involved to use the highly effective industrial relations machinery that is available to resolve the matter. The issue has been through the conciliation process at the Labour Relations Commission and is the subject of a Labour Court recommendation. The parties involved should use these creative solutions to bring about a quick resolution and I hope that can be achieved as quickly as possible.

The broader question is how the management of Dublin Bus can harness demand to its own advantage, leaving aside the private sector companies that wish to enter the market. Dublin Bus should take a proactive approach in this. We saw what happened across the water where Margaret Thatcher's Government believed the way right of forcing the hand of the state municipal bus services was to privatise the routes. That has been in dramatic reverse for the past five years, however, because the private sector was only interested in the lucrative routes at lucrative times. It was not interested in providing a service for 17 or 18 hours a day. This is something to which I have never been attracted, but we would force that upon ourselves if we did not have a sensible, progressive approach in terms of public bus services.

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