Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

According to figures supplied to me, €58 million was taken out of Dublin Bus in 2009.

The sum in question was €38 million from the drivers, with another €20 million now being sought, and €9 million relating to pay and conditions. This is core pay. I am a post office worker and although we very seldom got pay increases, we always negotiated when shift work, extra night work and other allowances were involved to try to support the wages we had, which were very low. These are very low paid workers and they cannot and will not accept these cuts. I ask the Minister to intervene and to bring the management back into the talks. The other day management returned, stayed seven minutes and walked out, leaving an ultimatum that the cuts were to be brought in on 12 May. That is not the way to do business. Managers should be sitting in with the unions right now, discussing the issue.

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