Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yet again the Minister has announced what he believes to be the solution to this strike - that workers could remain with the two parent companies. All that he does every time he reiterates that is to prove that this is ideology over economics from the Government's perspective. If Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus have to retain staff they no longer require because they no longer retain the services, they will become more inefficient, making it more difficult for Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus to compete for the awards the Minister will be issuing from 2017 to 2019.

It is not acceptable for the Minister to say that somehow because of growth in the market these people will be subsumed into those companies because if the Bus Éireann network in Waterford is dismantled and the growth is in Dublin, does he expect these workers to travel from Waterford to Dublin to work? It is farcical. I know it was about the Minister putting his finger in the dam of the strike that is emerging, but it undermines the efforts he is making if it is supposed to be done under value for money. I ask the Minister to accept that the proposal based on Fine Gael ideology is wrong, to pull back at this late hour and ask the NTA to step back from competitive tendering.

As the strike is going ahead tonight, I ask the Minister to do two things. He should ask Iarnród Éireann to halt the works that are planned on the rail network over the weekend. Will he sign whatever order is appropriate to open up the bus lanes to commuters during the strike period?

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