Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask about the sub-committee on public services and whether it is considering the Government's responsibility for the current rail dispute. Subsidies for transport services, specifically rail services, have decreased dramatically since 2008, from €181 million to €117 million. If the Government was simply to restore the level of subvention to Irish Rail in 2008, Irish Rail would have more than enough money to fund the pay claims of rail workers who have not received a pay increase for ten years. If the Government raised its subvention to average EU levels, an extra €120 million would be put straight into Irish Rail's transport services, which would be more than enough to finance the modest pay claim of rail workers who do not want to be out on strike but who believe they have no other choice. Have the Taoiseach and the sub-committee accepted that it is the Government's failure to subvent public transport that is the cause of the dispute? There is a rigged game. It means that, even if Irish Rail does well and makes a profit of more than €3.5 million, that profit is taken away from it; therefore, it cannot possibly finance a pay increase. Unless we provide the subvention that we used to give or is common across Europe, this type of dispute will continue.

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