Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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81. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the settlement of the Luas dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15627/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​I am obviously delighted that the disruption and inconvenience caused to hundreds of thousands of commuters and taxpayers over the last few months has now ceased. It was regrettable that this disruption and inconvenience was imposed upon people in the first place.

As I have previously stated in the House, my focus at all times was to protect the interests of the taxpayer and the travelling public, and to encourage the parties to work to resolve their differences. I am glad that eventually a mutually acceptable agreement was reached between the parties.

As the Deputy is aware, I have no function in relation to either the employment of Transdev employees or their terms and conditions of employment.  They are employees of Transdev, which is a private company and the settlement arrived at is a matter for that company and its employees. Each such dispute as this has its own unique characteristics and it is important to realise that agreements reached reflect those unique characteristics.

I am also pleased that the State's industrial relations institutions were able to assist the parties in coming to an agreement. There had been calls throughout this dispute for some sort of Ministerial intervention but I have consistently maintained that any intervention by me, or indeed others without a legal function or role in the dispute, would not have been helpful. The matter was ultimately resolved with the assistance of the Labour Court following discussions involving the relevant parties – the employer and the employees.