Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I rise to discuss the imminent, all-out bus strike and the impact it will have on people. I do this in the context of an earlier meeting relating to the national spatial strategy and talk that we will lose the Athlone to Westport route. There are many questions around that, including taking services, including vital transport services, away from rural Ireland. In any survey, people say that transport is one of the biggest barriers to accessing vital services like health. Millions have been spent on developing and marketing the Wild Atlantic Way. We must be clear about this. It is a political decision. In 2015 when cuts to transport services and bus routes were first mooted, An Taoiseach said that buses could not be driving around boreens. When we get that kind of response, it is any wonder we are on the verge of an all-out strike? I want to put this in the context of the economic and financial decisions that are made in this country. Bus Éireann has projected that it will lose €9.4 million this year. Let us consider that figure in the context of the €350 million given to vulture funds on the back of the section 110 loopholes. That means were the decision made to close the loophole to facilitate foreign vulture funds we could run Bus Éireann for 37 years even with the losses cited by the organisation. This is the type of political decision-making that we are getting, which impacts on rural Ireland.

With regard to the threat of 120 job losses in Bus Éireann, the cost to the Exchequer, never mind the impact on the lives of those workers and that of their families, is intolerable. I ask that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sports gets involved, even at this late stage, to prevent an all out strike. I hope he realises that he cannot expect the workers of Bus Éireann to pay for ten new buses or vital rural transport that connects the east and west of the country.