Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Clearly, the right of workers to collective bargaining is a key belief of my party. Talking about "no strike" clauses is pointless, right-wing rhetoric that does not solve the fundamental issue for commuters and the company. The Irish Rail Users Union has spoken about the necessity for independently set and monitored standards of service that would be delivered. I note in respect of the debate on the Dublin Transport Authority, which the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Noel Ahern, took last week because the Minister was not in the House, that, obviously, contracts of service will exist. However, the Minister is not bringing forward a national transport regulator so in a situation like the one we are discussing this evening, there is no body that can insist on a particular type of service delivery. Does the Minister think he should look again at the necessity for a national transport authority?

The Minister did not respond to my earlier question about whether management at Iarnród Éireann brought to his attention the fact that it had a long-running and deep-seated problem in respect of the management of working time and the successful expansion of the network. I understand it is training 60 drivers at present and so on. Given that this is the case, was the Minister forewarned that this was likely to happen and could management have done more to stop it?

The Minister spoke about people signing preconditions but the travelling public would prefer it if at least the bulk of the service would run. There is no point in trying to make debating points when people are left without a transport service. The most important point is to get the trains running on time and get the service back.

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