Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 1 reads:

To insert the following after "Bus Éireann and private operators":"- ensure a level playing field for all operators, avoid a race to the bottom and safeguard the interests of workers by committing to a sectoral employment order setting out minimum pay rates, as well as pension and sick pay schemes for employees across the sector."

I thank Fianna Fáil for bringing the motion before the House. If the party that cut the minimum wage is now to be a champion of worker’s rights, I call on it to support our amendment to its Private Members' motion on Bus Éireann. We certainly support the thrust of the motion. Our amendment is designed to ensure a level playing field for all operators, avoid a race to the bottom and safeguard the interests of workers by committing to a sectoral employment order setting out minimum pay rates, as well as pension and sick pay schemes for employees across the sector. We believe we need a sectoral employment order in this area.

Under the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 introduced by the previous Government, the Labour Court can investigate the conditions of employment in an industry and set basic, legally-enforced conditions of employment. The Minister acknowledged that in his contribution, but will he support a move to achieve it in the sector? It needs to apply to the bus market right now. The future of Bus Éireann is of great concern and importance and I implore the Minister to listen and take heed of what is coming through in this debate from our side of the House. Our concern is that this crisis is being used to slash the terms and conditions of front-line staff in Bus Éireann. There must be no race to the bottom in this or any other industry. We worked hard in government to implement laws to provide workers' representatives with mechanisms to protect against such threats. These mechanisms are here and the Minister must push for them to be used. What sectoral employment orders in this industry would ensure is that workers are not impoverished on the altar of efficiencies.

We all know the company is in a difficult financial situation. The market place is highly competitive and margins are very thin. These are real concerns and real challenges which need to be tackled. We need strong leadership from management, workers' representatives and the Minister like never before. I know the workers and staff want to be part of solving these problems. We know there are difficulties in Bus Éireann and these need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. In the competitive environment Bus Éireann must be able to respond to competitive pressures also. The motion recognises that it is in a serious financial state with the big losses in 2016 that are expected to increase in 2017 should no changes be made.

We know the bus drivers and front-line staff in Bus Éireann are willing to discuss proposals to ensure the company remains viable and is in a position to maintain and indeed grow its service into the future. The Grant Thornton report provides for a number of options, including the nuclear option of Bus Éireann ending its Expressway service altogether. Nobody in this House, including members of the Government, wants that to happen. Expressway is a very good service which delivers a public need with certainty, but it is operating with one hand tied behind its back. The National Transport Authority must be tasked with urgently reviewing the Expressway routes, reporting on the level of public service obligation funding associated with those routes and providing subvention accordingly. The lack of sectoral agreements within the industry tilts the playing field towards private operators paying lower wage rates. The net result, as we have seen, is customers voting with their feet and moving to private contractors, rail services or their cars. All methods of solving this issue need to be on the table.

We must examine the role subvention can play in addressing the challenges for Bus Éireann. Our levels of subvention are well below European norms and that must be addressed as the economy continues to improve. I acknowledge there has been some improvement in that regard this year. At the moment, only 41% of the price of the fare for customers entitled to free travel is paid for by the Department of Social Protection. If there is room for this payment to be increased, that might form part of a solution. It will not, however, be the full solution. In the course of getting to grips with the transport brief in recent months, I have spoken with many transport experts, some academics and interested individuals. Almost to a man or woman, they have referred to the vital importance of a local and national bus network. We have a Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which is answerable to the Minister, setting policy and allocating funding, alongside the NTA, which is responsible for awarding licences and setting bus routes.

If the Minister supports the retention of a bus network which serves the entire country, he must engage with both the Department and the NTA to ensure the future of that network is not set back decades as a consequence of the approach that is being taken in this instance. A failure to reach a solution in the coming weeks could have a ripple effect across our entire transport sector. I cannot overstate the potential negative impact if this process continues down its current track of megaphone diplomacy. The leaking of the management's plans to the press was a cack-handed move that has led to further mistrust among workers and their representatives. The draconian measures that were leaked seem designed to scare and infuriate the workers. Such drastic measures will never be agreeable to trade unions that achieved so much over such a long time. Will the Minister instruct the NTA to set up a consultative group, as provided for in the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, and place it on a standing basis? The group should include all relevant stakeholders, including representatives of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Such an arrangement is provided for in the 2008 Act but has not yet been deployed.

Unfortunately, the Government seems happy to allow the seeds of discontent to be sown among workers throughout the country, in many sectors and in many industries. At best, it approach could be considered poor judgment; at worst, it seems deliberately antagonistic. When my party was in government, in far more difficult financial times than this Government faces, we ensured as best we could that negotiations with trade unions were ongoing. There was always a presence in government which instinctively looked out for the worker. That is no longer the case. In the nine months since this Government was formed, we have seen industrial action, work stoppages and discontent more usually associated with deep recession than economic recovery. It is difficult not to conclude that the hands-off approach we are seeing to this crisis is deliberately antagonistic. The Minister must take hold of the crisis now. He is the only person with the authority to get all the stakeholders around the table, build up trust among them and work towards a solution. He has an opportunity, too, by way of our amendment, to lay down a marker for the bus industry and set it up to be a level playing field. A sectoral agreement to set minimum standards of pay and conditions in the industry would be a progressive step forward. It would help to build trust and to find a solution to the current difficulties. The fears of workers that wages and conditions will deteriorate and jobs will be shed must be allayed.

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