Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that workers at Bus Éireann provide 40,000 services per week. They have had to endure essentially a pay freeze since 2009, when they were actually promised a pay increase of 6%. I note the Minister's statement that nobody should go into these talks with preconditions, but the reality is that Bus Éireann management has said that much of the savings it seeks will come off the back of the workforce. I wish to talk to the Minister about this workforce through the eyes of one of my constituents. He says that he is paid €624 per week, gross, for a 39-hour week. However, anybody employed after him is only paid €539. Some working days are in excess of 12 hours, rarely all of it paid time. There can be unpaid breaks of up to two hours and 45 minutes during the day. These could be well away from the home depot. They work about nine Sundays in every 14 shifts, which is a concern in terms of rest times, bringing back buses and so on. To unilaterally impose cuts on what are already hard-pressed working conditions is unacceptable. While I note the Minister's statement that good sense should prevail, is there anything he thinks he could do to facilitate some type of forum? He says the industrial machinery is there but it is not adequate to get over this notion of preconditions, which is seriously unhelpful.

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