Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I call on the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to bring the parties together for discussions and negotiations on the Bus Éireann nationwide strike. It is imposing major hardship throughout the country on workers, employers and everybody else who is badly affected. This strike has the potential to escalate with Dublin Bus and school transport services in danger as well. The Minister should not be in on the negotiations but he should use his position to request or direct all parties to suspend the strike and to sit down and negotiate. I am long enough in the Oireachtas to recall that a previous Fine Gael Government under Garret FitzGerald and Jim Mitchell abolished Irish Shipping. The left ships throughout the world, which were seized. For an island nation not to have Irish Shipping was------