Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I certainly have not done it. The idea of a consultative forum has merit. There are possibilities in having one. I want to be guaranteed that we do not have the kind of megaphone diplomacy that has been going on during the industrial relations problems we have at the moment. There are certain State bodies which deal with those. What was conspicuous in the last industrial dispute, in Dublin Bus, was that people were saying one thing publicly and another privately. That is the way industrial disputes are conducted in public but it would not be helpful to have a consultative process in the midst of that because all that would happen would be that, in the heat of industrial disputes, that forum would be used for other purposes.

When the other two companies have sorted out the difficulties in which they now find themselves, and which are well known to the Deputy, I will certainly consider having in a less heated atmosphere a consultative forum between all the parties and stakeholders involved. It does have merit, but in the present atmosphere of industrial differences, it would be wrong to do so.

See this speech in context