Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I move amendment No. 25:

In page 9, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:

"(xiii) all relevant health and safety, labour and accessibility legislation and regulation and fair and reasonable salaries for all transport workers.".

Amendments Nos. 25 and 26 are critical. The Labour Party's view of the Bill is predicated on these two amendments being adopted. When the Bill is enacted there must be a level playing pitch in the bus market and the highest possible standards for workers in the industry must apply.

Transport is a safety critical industry. I think of the recent incident involving a Luas tram and a Dublin Bus in O'Connell Street, Dublin. A few years ago there was a horrendous incident in the Minister's constituency involving a school bus. It is very important the highest possible work standards are maintained for the protection and safety of passengers — the consumers — and for the provision of a high quality service.

Amendment No. 25 states:

In page 9, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:

"(xiii) all relevant health and safety, labour and accessibility legislation and regulations and fair and reasonable salaries for all transport workers.".

Health and safety goes without saying. Recently we saw how the Health and Safety Authority rightly tried to get involved in investigations of horrendous collisions and crashes in the context of the state of national primary and secondary roads. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Michael Kennedy, might remember we discussed that at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport. The highest possible health and safety standards in the industry are critical. I heard Deputy O'Dowd's comments on the accessibility legislation. A key requirement should be that the national transport authority takes responsibility for this.

I refer to existing labour legislation and regulations. We spoke about phrases in legislation in other countries and different precedents. The words "fair and reasonable" seemed useful in regard to salaries. I hope that will preclude the kind of behaviour we saw in other parts of the transport industry in recent years. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport had a major discussion with Aer Lingus workers and management last Thursday afternoon. There were many references to companies operating in this country with offshore workers and offshore contracting and subcontracting. The hours and conditions of work and wages are very bad.

I hope the Minister will get the chance in the next week or two to discuss the developing situation in Aer Lingus. We believe Aer Lingus is being pulled in a race to the bottom, in particular by Ryanair and its standards and operations. One need only look at the new amazing salary being offered to cabin crew, or offshore workers. The Acting Chairman rightly expressed amazement and anger when he heard of the wages — €16,000 to €18,000 — being proffered to cabin crew being hired abroad, as we all did.

We have had warnings about what can happen in a transport market if one is not vigilant. We need to include this as a condition for the provision of licences in order that we will not have some operators doing what they like and treating their workers in a despicable way with the regulator not having the power to take action.

I will refer later to the National Employment Rights Authority, the Labour Court, the industrial relations structures and so on. The regulator, Mr. Gerry Murphy, must require people to adhere to fundamentally decent labour standards. Everybody who wants to go into public transport provision, whether local, national, urban or rural, should have to adhere to these standards. That is a reasonable request to make of a public service operator. Will the Minister include that as a basic condition of licences? I hope he supports that in order that we can support the Final Stages of the Bill.

Amendment No. 26 adds to that. It states:

In page 9, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:

"(c) shall require the applicant to produce a statement confirming that they agree and that they accept that is a condition of the granting of the license that they will respect the established conditions of employment in the public transport sector, including respecting the rights of employees to engage in collective bargaining through a trade union."

That is a fundamental principle for us. It is a huge bone of contention that I have had with Ryanair for the past decade or so. The chief executive and the board of that company are not prepared to allow professional representation for their workers even though they get the best professional representation in regard to their own salaries and work conditions, as we have seen with Mr. O'Leary, who is not prepared to give the same facility to his own workforce.

We saw cases of victimisation of workers who tried to get professional representation from a trade union. Ten or 11 years ago when I was enterprise, trade and employment spokesperson for my party, I introduced the trade union recognition Bill in the House. As the Minister knows, the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, did not take on board the full Bill, as presented, which would have made it essential for companies such as Ryanair to give full recognition. I make no apologies for this. Despite what certain people in the media and elsewhere believe, people have the right to professional representation and it is a critical component of how one operates. Most of us have been used to it throughout our lives as workers and professionals. It should be a basic requirement.

I differ with Fine Gael in that it should not be the case that some companies adhere to decent, reasonable and sustainable standards in all these matters while other companies do what they like, turn out whatever kind of fleet they like and treat their workers whatever way they like. We are determined to prevent a race to the bottom in the transport industry and in the provision of bus services. While we recognise the need for reasonable competitive services, we are not prepared to allow the bus transport industry to go down that route because it will be detrimental to our citizens and our country.

Amendment No. 28 states:

In page 9, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:

"(a) he or she [somebody who applies for a licence] complies strictly with the best labour, health and safety standards,".

Amendment No. 29 states:

In page 9, line 38, after "certificate" to insert the following:

"indicating the discharge of all previous fiduciary taxes".

A tax clearance certificate is required. I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts and I refer to the recent interesting study by the Comptroller and Auditor General on fiduciary taxes and the problems collecting them given company governance in this country. The Committee of Public Accounts is making suggestions to the Comptroller and Auditor General and to the Revenue Commissioners. If somebody has not discharged his or her fiduciary obligations to this nation in regard to his or her workers, he or she should not be able to get another licence.

Amendment No. 30 states:

In page 9, between lines 40 and 41, to insert the following:

"(d) he or she complies with the highest health and safety and labour standards as defined in Irish and EU legislation."

That should be a requirement for somebody who wants to obtain a public bus licence.

These amendments are critical to the Bill. I agree with the principle of meeting the deadline of 3 December and of ensuring the very good work of our public service companies is protected and that in the future we have a modern licensing system. There must be a level playing pitch for all companies. There must not be one set of high and good standards for one group of companies and a lack of standards for others. Will the Minister accept these amendments?

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