Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will discuss the ongoing industrial dispute, and plans for industrial action by workers, at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, over the decision to put 10% of routes out to private tender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16718/15]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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As we face into this holiday weekend our entire public bus network will grind to a halt because of the actions of the Government in attempting to follow the ideological path of privatisation. What do Fine Gael and its Labour Party colleagues in government intend to do to address the very severe impact this strike will have on commuters and tourists? Obviously, it is not just this weekend; industrial action is threatened over the coming weeks.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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 As the Deputy is aware, I am greatly concerned that industrial action has been threatened in circumstances where the National Transport Authority is carrying out its statutory responsibility of proceeding with a tendering process that resulted from an assessment of how best to balance direct award and tendered public service obligation bus services in the public interest. Such action would cause considerable disruption to the public across the country and would substantially damage the companies' finances.

Allowing for a degree of competitive tension in the market will ensure better value for money for the taxpayer and improved quality of service for commuters and the Government is committed to that objective. Both CIE bus companies are open to compete for the routes that are going out to tender. Furthermore, the growth in both companies will be sufficient to minimise the effects should either of them not be successful in securing a tender. 

I have repeatedly stated my support for both Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann as shown by the €180 million that was invested in the companies by the taxpayer and by the Government last year in public service obligation funding and support for the upgrading and modernisation of their fleets. I have also given a commitment to seek an increase in subvention funds into the future to enable expansion in the years ahead.

There had been intensive engagement for some time at the Labour Relations Commission, which is the appropriate place to have employee concerns addressed. The unions should call off the threatened strikes and return to the commission. The companies have assured me that they will engage constructively in that forum.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's privatisation strategy is in a shambles. Last night, in an effort to placate the concerns of drivers at the two companies, he said that no driver would have to transfer in the event of the route being lost to a private competitor. In effect, what he intends to do is place an additional burden on the balance sheet and books of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, making them less cost effective. This undermines the entire strategy his Government put forward in the first instance to privatise the routes. He is now going to create an additional cost base by retaining workers with the company. That makes no sense.

I am deeply concerned at what is happening. I listened to a SIPTU representative this morning say this was not a battle with the Government but with the employer. The fact of the matter is this is entirely at the feet and the hands of the Government. It is the strategy it has taken on to privatise the bus routes. The Minister must now look to 2019. If Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann go in carrying the cost of 10% extra staff, it will make them less efficient and put them in a far more difficult position to compete for routes then. The Minister should put his hands up and say his Government is about dismantling the public transport system and privatisation. He should at least be honest with the travelling public and the workers.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Dooley is performing more U-turns on this matter than the most agile driver in either Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann. The implementation of the tendering process is a consequence of the 2008 legislation introduced by his Government, which he supported. Bringing in a degree of competitive tension to the marketplace is a consequence of that legislation. It is a policy that I believe is appropriate given the scale of investment by the taxpayer in the bus market.

If I had not made the intervention yesterday, the Deputy would be standing up this morning asking why I was not doing anything. Now that I have made an intervention he is in here criticising me for doing it.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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What the Minister failed to say is that the 2008 Act is the consequence of a 2007 directive from the European Commission which the European Parliament supported at the time and which was a requirement on the State. The Fianna Fáil strategy in dealing with it, in agreement with the unions, was that the competitive tendering process would only be in place for new routes and would not impact on the additional stock of routes. That was agreed with the unions and accepted.

The Minister should tell the whole story when he comes into this House rather than comparing me to some kind of joy-riding bus driver. He is wrong and should accept it. It is his Government and the Fine Gael approach, supported by the Labour Party, that is wrong. The Labour Party pulled a great stroke on the backs of the workers when a Minister of State with responsibility for public transport was appointed.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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A question, please, Deputy.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to ask the Minister when his Government is going to reappoint the Minister of State and show up the Labour Party for what it has perpetrated on the workers and the Irish people by giving to believe, through its programme for Government, that it somehow cared about public transport. When the going got tough, when the deal was done and Fine Gael's privatisation agenda was firmly on track, the Minister of State with responsibility for public transport evaporated.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am struck by the speed at which the Deputy moved on from acknowledging his own role and that of his party in putting together the legislation that forms the origin of what I am dealing with today, to an open discussion regarding who is doing what at Minister of State level within the Government. The Deputy has just acknowledged the role he and his party played because he understood then what I understand now, namely, that a degree of competitive tension is appropriate in dealing with a bus market that is of such importance to our country. Before Christmas, I brought in a Supplementary Estimate of over €100 million, the sole purpose of which was to support the development of CIE and to address the financial needs of Irish Rail and both bus companies. The Deputy is in danger of performing so many U-turns on this matter he is going to end up where he started in his own journey.