Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely endorse everything that Deputy Eamon Ryan has just said. That is the perfect system in terms of using all the assets of the State in a co-ordinated manner. I fear, however, that our current system of government will prevent that from happening because the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment will probably object to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Ultimately, Deputy Eamon Ryan's vision could be achieved without additional major expense if we had a proactive National Transport Authority that thought outside the box. However, if a person has to travel from Belmullet to attend a hospital appointment in Galway where Bianconi managed to get to over 100 years ago, he or she would have to go the night before. That is because he or she will not get a mid-morning appointment. They make someone turn up at 9 a.m. and one cannot get public transport that early. A proper hub-and-spoke system would allow a person using an Expressway route to get into Galway in time for a hospital appointment and return home again.

CIE buses used to deliver newspapers and parcels but they got out of that business under the old management system. As previous speakers have said, management have so much to answer for but we are making the workers pay. I asked the new CEO of Bus Éireann, Mr. Ray Hernan who has been handed a very difficult job to outline the severance package of his predecessor. He said he could not do so because of confidentiality. There is no confidentiality around the assault on workers, however. As we are keeping the heartbeat of this company going, we must address that issue.

In a previous life, the Minister made a name for himself by telling shareholders what questions to ask at annual general meetings, AGMs. May I ask him to answer these questions? What actions did the directors appointed by the Department take when Bus Éireann went from a €400,000 surplus to a €5.4 million loss? They remained mute and did nothing. They actually stood by while three rescue plans were turned down by the Department they represented.

The Minister has a responsibility to the shareholders and employees. He says he cannot get involved and that we have an industrial relations mechanism. I call on the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to get involved. There should be no need for a strike. The WRC should get involved now and kill this off at the pass, rather than it becoming a case of people being inconvenienced. A hub-and-spoke mechanism connecting public transport to the express routes is the way to go. Bus Éireann had that in place but it has been cherry-picked by the NTA. We do not have confidence in the NTA in rural Ireland. We see how they deal with taxi services which they long finger. The NTA has to prove itself, as does the WRC. Many elements of the State have to prove themselves to provide fair employment and a service that works.

We have heard about red setters and Bianconi. The ultimate red herring is that the Government will not get involved in this debate. It feels it can stick its head in the sand. If, however, there is a public service strike on 20 February - I predict that there will be - on the Minister's head be it.

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