Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I welcome the involvement of the Labour Relations Commission. I hope a basis for a quick resolution of this dispute will emerge as soon as possible.

In any public transport system commuters must come first. It was totally unacceptable last Thursday that thousands of people were left stranded on platforms waiting for trains that did not arrive. It is also unacceptable that many people missed important appointments and were unable to attend concerts, community games and so on. This should not have happened.

It appears this problem has been simmering for at least seven or eight years. The new deal for locomotive drivers emerged in 2000. I note that in 2006 there was to be a final resolution in respect of hours worked given an agreement in this regard had been reached in 2000. However, this was not implemented. It is the job of management to implement an agreement but it did not do so.

Has the chief executive, Dick Fearn, and the Irish Rail management team brought to the Minister's attention since he took up office as Minister for Transport this festering industrial relations problem which needed to be resolved? As the Minister stated, a majority of workers turned up willing and available to work but were not permitted to do so. Is there any substance, therefore, in the charge made by SIPTU and others, that to some extent management allowed this dispute to happen? As I understand it, the day the dispute arose an industrial relations meeting was taking place in respect of the resolution of the basic problems, including hours to be worked, which dated back to 2000.

The Minister noted the achievements of Irish Rail and mentioned it had carried as many passengers last year as Ryanair. The Government's investment in Irish Rail is welcome as is the company's performance right across the board. What everybody in the country wants now is for the trains to be running again. Commuters in Cork, Mallow, Tralee, Dublin and elsewhere have been discommoded and they want the trains up and running immediately. In that context, is it not invidious that any kind of preconditions would have been set, as happened yesterday? The service could have been back in action as soon as possible with substantive negotiations in hand.

See this speech in context