Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Over recent days I have had the honour and privilege of meeting some very fine Irish men and women on the Bus Éireann picket lines. One of them, Tommy St. Ledger, in Broadstone, has worked 51 years of his life in Bus Éireann, is due to retire in June on a glorious pension of €97 a week, having given his entire adult life and some of his childhood to Bus Éireann. Rory, from the Taoiseach's neck of the woods in the west, takes home approximately €600 a week, and that includes all the premiums and his overtime. He is a man who has a growing family, some in college. Michael, who is a new worker, takes home approximately €450 a week, and that includes all his premiums. He is a young man with a mortgage and children so small he is now doing picket duty in the evenings to avoid having to pay child care while he is on strike.

I want the Taoiseach to answer this question directly. Does he believe anyone could justify taking 30% of the wages of those three people I have given him as examples? That is what is being proposed by Bus Éireann in its attack on the pay and conditions of workers throughout the country.

There is a crisis in the company. I will not stand here and deny there is a deficit and a crisis. However, it is not a crisis like a volcanic eruption in Iceland or a storm hitting the west coast of Ireland. It is not a force of nature. It is a crisis created by this and previous Governments, and I will stand over that statement. The National Transport Authority, for which the Taoiseach's Cabinet has responsibility, has deliberately swamped the main bus routes between the cities, such as Dublin-Limerick, Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Galway etc., with private operators. It has over-licensed beyond capacity and beyond 100% of what is needed.

At the same time, this Government and the previous one have consistently cut the subsidy to Bus Éireann. The subsidy Bus Éireann gets as a public transport company is 12%. Guess how much public transport receives by way of subsidy in Belgium. In Belgium, a subsidy of 78% is allocated to run public transport. The figure for Holland is 49%. Ireland gives its public transport companies a lower subsidy than do most developed European countries. In addition, we subsidise a social function of the transport sector to allow for free travel. I have a letter here from the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, which clearly shows we give to the private operators a subsidy of 70% for that free travel and 40% to Bus Éireann. This is not a level playing field.

The crisis in Bus Éireann has been manufactured consistently and continually by this Government and the previous one. Then there is the extraordinary situation of a Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, who is on a multiple of the wages of these people who work hard day in, day out, saying a national transport strike is nothing to do with him. He is the Minister with responsibility for transport but says he will not intervene in a national transport strike.

I have two questions for the Taoiseach. I ask him to explain that last position. How does his Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport not have anything to do with a national transport strike? Can the Taoiseach justify a cut of 30% to the wages of the people whose earnings I have just described?

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