Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the big issues for many people is privatisation. We have been opposed to any attempts to privatise further any of the bus services. Bus Éireann is doing very well at the moment. The numbers using its services have increased massively, and it is now returning a profit for the first time in recent years. I agree with the Minister with respect to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, which we utilise.

However, at times things come to a point of being at loggerheads. The Minister should not abdicate his responsibility by leaving it up to the WRC to negotiate between the bodies. That is not good enough. Sometimes intervention or certainly recommendations or even talks behind the scenes are very important. Public transport now is a major issue. We have climate change. We have all the issues relating to carbon emissions to live up to. This is a very important area.

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