Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is astonishing that we again face a national transport strike during the Minister's tenure. We went through this previously with Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. Eventually, a settlement was reached. The very hard-working staff with their five trade unions - Unite, SIPTU, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, TEEU, and the National Bus and Rail Union, NBRU, took a very mature and responsible line at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. They seemed to be inching towards a settlement of around 2.5%, which is a little bit over the general public service rise which has already been agreed. Suddenly, there was a debacle and it was stopped. Many people think this was stopped on the Minister's orders because he was not prepared to give the normal pay rise in the public sector to workers in this area.

During the years of the two austerity Governments before this Government, public service obligation, PSO, funding was slashed. Back in 2007, the company received a PSO of almost €190 million down through 2008 when it received €181 million, 2009 when it received €170 million, 2010 when it received €155 million, 2011 when it received €148 million, 2012 when it received €166 million, 2013 when it received €127 million, 2014 when it received €117 million and 2015 when it received €117 million. PSO funding has been slashed while at the same time successful rail companies across Europe, like Deutsche Bahn, receive very significant subsidies from their governments that very often are up to two thirds of their turnover. We need a good public transport system.

One of the worst features of this is that the document that Iarnród Éireann apparently presented at the Labour Court set out that four important lines, namely, Limerick to Ballybrophy, Limerick Junction to Waterford, Ennis to Athenry and Gorey to Rosslare, would be closed. What on earth could be the logic or rationale for this given that we only funded the Ennis to Athenry line in recent times and the Gorey to Rosslare line is vital in the context of Brexit? The Minister needs to sort this out.

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