Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Citizens have rights and that should have primacy in a real Republic and those rights should include the right to public services. The Government's record on public services is disgraceful. As the Taoiseach contemplates his own political future, he should be aware, 100 years after the 1916 Rising, that citizens do not have rights to public services - not to a home, not to water, not to a public bus service and not to a health service. That is the Taoiseach's legacy. It is because he does not believe in the rights of citizens that he refuses to ask the Minister, Deputy Ross, to intervene in the Bus Éireann dispute. The Taoiseach has also said he will not support Sinn Féin's Private Members' Bill on enhancing workers' rights, to be moved tonight by Teachta David Cullinane, because he does not agree that workers should be protected against exploitation, whether it is in Tesco or in Bus Éireann.

The Taoiseach has done his time. By his own lights, he has done his best but is it not always better to leave things better than one found them? Even at this late stage, I ask the Taoiseach to intervene to avoid a protracted industrial dispute and to save Bus Éireann.

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