Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There is rage at the Minister across the country outside of Dublin, including in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and the smaller towns and among stranded passengers, including elderly passengers, workers who have to pay for taxis to get to work and businesses that have been hit hard. In an unpopular Government, with unpopular Ministers, the Minister, Deputy Ross, is the most unpopular of all. Those angry people will not tolerate another round the mulberry bush episode at the Workplace Relations Commission which shows no way forward. The way forward is a commitment from the Minister to an increase in subvention for proper public transport services and the agreement of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, to properly compensate Bus Éireann for its participation in the free travel pass scheme. Without that, all we have is a low pay agenda, a race to the bottom agenda and a privatisation agenda. There is no way people will continue to suffer in silence while the Minister pursues an agenda of this kind. The message from those people and from workers around the country, including Dublin, is, "Resolve this dispute: fund public transport."

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