Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On April fool's day a pay rise of €5,000 kicked in for Deputies. At least 90 Deputies, the bulk of whom are members of Government, snapped up that pay rise with both hands. Those same Deputies think that workers should accept a 30% cut in their wages. They think that it is fair that bus workers would accept a 30% cut in their wages. Those Deputies are hiding behind and, at the same time, backing the Minister, Deputy Ross, in his attempts to run our public transport network into the ground to suit his agenda of privatisation. Public transport, like education and housing, is a public service. There are hundreds of thousands of people who depend on public transport on a daily basis.

If the talks at the WRC do not work out and if the Minister persists with his agenda of privatisation and a race to the bottom of workers' rights the result will be the mother of all strikes. The Minister and the Government will be directly responsible for the chaos that will ensue when that happens.

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