Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on the motion, which is poignant given the ongoing dispute with Dublin Bus and its workers. As issues have developed and emerged, the motion has been superseded by negotiations taking place this week, and we hope they prove fruitful. Much has been said during the debate, and I do not want to repeat it.

Public sector workers are among the best in the world and they provide exceptional service sometimes under difficult conditions across the public sector in local authorities and across the public services that are provided on a daily basis. Those posts are all funded by the public sector income which is provided predominantly by the taxpayer. As such, there is an obligation on all of us to act responsibly when this money is being divided. We cannot argue economically for tax reductions or increases on the one hand and increases or reductions to pay on the other. Complicated economic analyses have been done here and across the OECD on models of rewarding pay and performance.

I was listening to some of the debate on Dublin Bus. The first question I always ask about a public service obligation is whether it can be provided by the private sector or if the taxpayer has to subvent a private company to provide it. For example, reference was made to the revenue stream of Dublin Bus. I examined the revenue stream of Dublin Bus over recent years. During recent weeks, some of the trade unions have been economical with the truth regarding the subvention being paid by the taxpayer, not by us, to Dublin Bus. The PSO, which was referred to today, is only one element of the funding the taxpayer provides to Dublin Bus. In addition to this subsidy, which was €57 million last year, the National Transport Authority, NTA, provided a capital subvention of €39 million, bringing the total State subvention to €96 million. Figures for other years are available.

When we compare like with like, we must acknowledge that the taxpayer is paying for the new buses that are on the streets of Dublin. They are not paying for the new buses on the streets of Galway, Cork, Letterkenny or other cities. They are paying for the new buses on the streets of Dublin and the PSO is being provided, given that the service is deemed to be financially unviable but socially desirable. The question must be asked as to why the taxpayer is subventing only Dublin Bus. If we want to get into the argument about pay and conditions, perhaps we should compare some of the other bus operators in the country. In my county, a private company, John McGinley Coaches, is providing a first class daily service from Donegal to Dublin and receives no State subvention, apart from pensioners' fares. Should the State intervene? The Labour Party motion indicates, if it does not state, that the State should intervene by propping up Dublin Bus to sort out the terms and conditions being requested by the workers.