Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 16: To ask the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the significant threat to jobs, pay and conditions among a company (details supplied) and Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company employees at Dun Laoghaire harbour, as a result of the decision by the company to downgrade its ferry service at the port to seasonal status and cost cutting measures being sought by Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26618/11]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 204: To ask the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the significant threat to jobs, pay and conditions among a company (details supplied) and Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company employees at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, as a result of the decision by the company to down-grade its ferry service at the port to seasonal status and cost cutting measures being sought by Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26723/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 204 together.

Officials from my Department maintain regular contact with the ports and various shipping companies and have been kept apprised of Stena Line's most recent adjustments to its services. Stena Line, as a commercial company, has taken a decision to introduce greater efficiencies and reduce their overall operating overheads in order to continue to provide services from Dún Laoghaire. The HSS Stena Explorer, operating on the Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead route, generates most of its turnover between May and September. This coupled with high fuel costs leaves the remaining months unsustainable. The company will continue to operate the route on a seasonal basis and services on the route are scheduled to resume in April 2012. Passengers and freight customers can still avail of the company's route between Dublin Port and Holyhead. This route is served by two vessels and the company operates a year round schedule.

As the HSS Stena Explorer is a UK flagged vessel, I have no function in regard to employment on board the vessel but I understand that the company has commenced consultations with their staff on board the vessel and those on shore in Dún Laoghaire and their trade union representatives.

Over recent years the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company has been restructuring its business to keep it on a sustainable financial footing and to enable the harbour to develop and operate on a commercial basis into the future. This has inevitably led to job losses. The company has also over the past number of years pursued a twin strategy of developing alternative income streams from marine leisure and tourism related business, while also reducing its high cost base. The company has recently published a draft masterplan for public consultation for the future development of the harbour.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I appeal to the Minister to put as much as pressure as he can on Stena Line to pull back from downgrading to a seasonal service from Dún Laoghaire because the Government has committed itself to developing tourism infrastructure and if we do not have a proper year round service in Dún Laoghaire, it will make a mockery of efforts to improve the such infrastructure. It has always been a vital route in and out of the country and I do not believe for a minute that it is unviable. Fuel costs could be reduced by using a different ship. The ship being used currently has particularly high fuel costs.

There are also questions relating to the workforce. The negotiations referred to by the Minister followed the company telling the entire workforce that they would be made redundant, despite saying it would maintain a service. The workers should get a commitment that in so far as services are maintained, their jobs, pay and conditions will be maintained.

With regard to the harbour company, all the cost cutting is being inflicted on the workforce via job losses and demands for swingeing pay cuts. On the other hand, there is seriously milking and abuse of expenses by harbour board directors. I do not have time to go through the figures but I ask the Minister to look into this. It is the subject of a later question that we will not reach but there are serious questions to be answered about board directors abusing travel expenses. For example, one claim was for €1,300 to travel to a meeting in Dún Laoghaire from Cork. There are eight meetings a year and now someone is claiming expenses from Dubai.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I have not yet met representatives of Stena Line but I will make contact with them to put whatever pressure I can on them regarding this route but a service is provided all year round from Dublin Port, which is 20 minutes up the road. Stena Line is withdrawing the service from Dún Laoghaire because there are not enough passengers to sustain the route, given the costs associated with operating a fast boat with high fuel costs while carrying few paying passengers.

I was only made aware of the other issue raised by the Deputy in the past few days by his constituency colleague, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor, and I was in touch with the chairman of the harbour company yesterday about it. I understand that expenses for attending board meetings from overseas are being repaid.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is more to it than that. This person is still on the board. For example, according to the profit and loss account, in 2007, when the same director was living in Dalkey, he claimed €458 in expenses to travel to Dún Laoghaire eight times a year. In 2008, when he was living in Cork, he claimed €1,300 per meeting to travel from there. The fare for a return train journey to Cork is €71 and it costs €25 for a taxi from Heuston Station to Dún Laoghaire and probably a similar amount for a taxi in Cork. That totals approximately €170, yet he claimed €1,300. In February 2009, the chief executive officer used the company credit card to pay for dinner and accommodation in the Royal Marine Hotel for guests, partners and so on, even though most of them lived in the Dún Laoghaire area. A sum of €450,000 was paid to consultants for fantastic, unrealisable plans. This equated to a cost of €10,000 per day to a company that is losing the same amount per day but the workers are being asked to take swingeing pay cuts. Will the Minister look into this? It is unacceptable. Jobs are being slaughtered while people at the top are abusing expenses.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputies would not claim expenses like that.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is incorrect to state the company is losing €10,000 a day. However, I would like the Deputy to send me the information he has and I will look into it because we cannot have a situation where the board of a company is behaving in one way when it expects its staff and others to make sacrifices to save the company. I had to deal with a similar issue in the Dublin Airport Authority and I will deal with it as well in Dún Laoghaire if need be. I ask the Deputy to forward the information because I want to know it.

The Deputy claims €12,000 a year to travel between Dún Laoghaire and Dublin. I am not sure how much the train costs but it is much less than that.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I do not use that money; it goes into a campaign fund. Written Answers follow Adjournment.