Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I appeal to the Minister to put as much as pressure as he can on Stena Line to pull back from downgrading to a seasonal service from Dún Laoghaire because the Government has committed itself to developing tourism infrastructure and if we do not have a proper year round service in Dún Laoghaire, it will make a mockery of efforts to improve the such infrastructure. It has always been a vital route in and out of the country and I do not believe for a minute that it is unviable. Fuel costs could be reduced by using a different ship. The ship being used currently has particularly high fuel costs.

There are also questions relating to the workforce. The negotiations referred to by the Minister followed the company telling the entire workforce that they would be made redundant, despite saying it would maintain a service. The workers should get a commitment that in so far as services are maintained, their jobs, pay and conditions will be maintained.

With regard to the harbour company, all the cost cutting is being inflicted on the workforce via job losses and demands for swingeing pay cuts. On the other hand, there is seriously milking and abuse of expenses by harbour board directors. I do not have time to go through the figures but I ask the Minister to look into this. It is the subject of a later question that we will not reach but there are serious questions to be answered about board directors abusing travel expenses. For example, one claim was for €1,300 to travel to a meeting in Dún Laoghaire from Cork. There are eight meetings a year and now someone is claiming expenses from Dubai.

See this speech in context