Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A few months ago, I tabled a Bill here, which got some attention but was not accepted, to do with essential services and to ban the willingness of workers to have a strike that would affect essential services. There was a good debate on the Bill, and a good discussion about the various aspects of it, but it seems to be something the Government should keep its eye on. It should be aware that this can be a significant threat.We have a ban on striking in the Garda and the Army. It appears to me it is possible to consider a ban on that basis also. I am reminded of it because yesterday five of the larger airlines in Europe united to ensure air traffic controllers could not close down the airlines. It is not the airlines that were going on strike but the air traffic controllers. Michael O'Leary instanced the fact that there were 3,000 flight cancellations this year which affected 600,000 passengers. It is something we should consider. In the case of essential services we should be able to ensure certain strikes do not happen.

A point of interest is that Prime Minister Tsipras of Greece told us today that his wife threatened to leave him if he gave way on the economic front. It seems to me this is a powerful method. He said he not going to give way solely because his wife would leave him. Perhaps it is something we should take into account.