David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing the private notice question. I was caught in this last Thursday when the dispute broke, as were thousands of others. The Minister referred to the fact that this has been going on for quite some time. Is there no early warning system in the industrial relations machinery of the State that should have picked this up and averted it a long time ago? I welcome the fact that the Labour Relations Commission is meeting both sides today. I wish it well and hope that it resolves the dispute.

Does the Minister agree there is something fundamentally wrong with the relations between some workers and management in Iarnród Éireann to lead to this? It seems to be intractable and bitter. It needs some form of investigation to find out what has led to this and to ensure it does not happen again.

Does the Minister agree that the important matter is to get the trains on track so that the public is not inconvenienced any further? Many thousands of people in Cork have been seriously discommoded over the past while. Will the Minister join with me in calling on both sides to get the trains on track now, to work to sort out whatever residual difficulties exist and to use all the mechanisms of the State to ensure this deep and bitter issue, which has been going on for some time, is resolved as soon as possible so that it will not happen again? Other State companies, such as the ESB, are an example of good practice whereas we have memories of major difficulties in some of those companies in the past. They now have internal mechanisms to ensure we do not experience the kind of problems that are happening in Iarnród Éireann.

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