Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

In general terms this group of amendments seeks to put important protections for transport workers directly into the Bill. Given that transport workers are among the most important of safety-critical workers in our economy, responsible day in and day out for the lives of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, these amendments seek to make the role and position of workers stronger. They also look to make the Minister more accountable for their protection.

Amendment No. 7 asks on page 14, line 21, after "the provision of a well-functioning, attractive, integrated and safe public transport system for all users", to insert as a general objective of the Dublin transport authority the phrase "including the upholding of the highest safety and professional standards by all operators involved in the provision of public transport services". When we discussed this section on Committee Stage, there was reflection on a number of occasions in the past when some of those standards were allowed to slip. Clearly, it was most appalling at the horrendous crash at Kentstown in County Meath and the dreadful incident on Wellington Quay a number of years ago.

This amendment seeks to, once and for all, lay down a very basic structure for the protection of safety-critical workers and ensure the highest safety and professional standards by all operators involved in the provision of public transport services. It relates also to the case I know the Minister found when he entered the Department, whereby operators in the public transport area were responsible for safety standards themselves. The system we have become used to for our private cars and other vehicles is not replicated in the commercial area of public transport services.

In particular, people were effectively invigilating safety standards on their own, although I know the RSA has sought to address the matter. The Minister has addressed it partially in his amendments to the Bill, which coincide with one of my own amendments relating to the granting of full powers to transport officers to operate on the roadside. This would prevent cases we have had in the past whereby some HGVs and public service vehicles were not kept to the highest possible safety standards.

As the Minister knows, we have learned this from systems operated by road safety authorities in the UK, which found a couple of years ago that half the Irish vehicles stopped were deficient or had safety problems. We have seen recent efforts by our own RSA and the Northern Ireland safety authority that also revealed major problems. The amendment seeks to add an important phrase to the general objectives of the authority.

Amendments Nos. 8 and 67 are fundamental from the perspective of my party and the labour movement. Amendment No. 8 seeks to add to the principal functions of the authority, which include important issues such as strategic planning of transport, integrated accessible public transport and fares and the range of invigilation of services which will be the DTA's responsibility. I seek to address some of the key issues which have arisen with this Bill and European legislation.

I have in front of me some of the past legislation in this area, with the most important piece of legislation underpinning the DTA Bill. This is Regulation (EC) No. 1370/2007 of the European Council and Parliament, from 23 October 2007. In the preamble to the regulation, the key elements of a public transport system in any of the 27 member countries of the European Union are laid down. There are a number of elements which provide for competition in public transport systems and services.

One of these elements stipulates that in the provision of public transport services, it is not a key concern of the European Union, first and foremost, whether those services are carried out by public or private operators. In other words, the European Union is effectively neutral on the issue.

There are a number of other elements in the preamble of this European legislation, which has highly stressed competition. That is reflected to some extent in the public service contract in the Bill. At the same time, the legislation includes a number of references to the rights of transport workers, whether in the public transport service or private sectors. As a result, I seek to include this directly in the Bill through this amendment.

The amendment inserts a new paragraph (g), which would state:

establish social and qualitative criteria to maintain and raise quality standards for public service obligations with regard to minimal working conditions, passenger rights, the needs of persons with reduced mobility, environmental protection, the security of passengers and employees as well as collective agreement obligations, and other rules and agreements concerning workplaces and social protection at the place where service is provided; In order to ensure transparent and comparable terms of competition between operators and to avert the risk of social dumping, the DTA should be free to impose specific social and service quality standards with due regard to recital 17 of Regulation (EC) No. 1370/2007 of 23 October 2007,

I have sought to insert that important section, recital 17 of the preamble of this European regulation on the protection of workers' rights, into the legislation. To have the full spirit of the European legislation, it is important to have, along with references to competition and greater competitive mobility in European, the other side of the legislation, which is recital 17, and I would like that inserted.

In addition, I wish to insert a new paragraph (h), which adds to the principal functions of the authority. It states:

maintain the highest standard of working conditions, including fair and reasonable salaries for all transport workers including those established by collective agreement obligations. The Minister shall request every two years that the Labour Court undertakes a review of conditions of employment in the public transport sector and sets out its recommendations for the appropriate minimum conditions of employment for the sector which will be accepted by the Minister and laid as an order before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Following 21 days this order will take affect and the DTA will make arrangements to adjust the terms of their contracts with public transport operators to give effect to the order.

In this case I am seeking to ensure that in any contracts awarded under this legislation, the spirit of paragraph (g) would also be directly reflected in the legislation and the Labour Court would have a special role in the protection of the rights and conditions of transport workers. It would be a fundamental requirement of the Bill that the Labour Court would have this role, every two years, to invigilate those salaries and conditions.

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