Griffin committee will grill Ross on bus strike chaos

KERRY is facing unprecedented travel chaos next week as the threatened Bus Éireann strike risks blowing up into a full scale transport strike hitting trains and city bus services.

2,600 staff at Bus Éireann are scheduled to go on strike on Monday and there are growing fears that their colleagues in Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann will join the action.

Transport Minister Shane Ross is coming under increasing pressure to intervene and today ( Wednesday) he is due to appear before the Dáil Transport and Tourism Committee to justify his hands off approach to the looming strike.

The Committee is chaired by Kerry TD Brendan Griffin who says urgent action is needed to avert a strike that will affect hundreds of thousands of people.

“We have a chance to resume our discussions with Minister Ross and put to him our concerns about how this proposed strike will affect the company, the staff, the public and the wider economy,” said Deputy Griffin.

“A resolution, through engagement and dialogue, simply needs to be found and without delay,” Deputy Griffin said.

“We are acutely aware that the financial situation of Bus Éireann is in a perilous position but the needs of tens of thousands of passengers around the country, who will be caught in the middle of this dispute, must also be represented,” said Deputy Griffin.

Speaking at the Transport Committee last week Independent Deputy Danny Healy-Rae called for more clarity from Bus Éireann on which routes it plans to cut and why.

“When I hear about the cut affecting the route from Clonmel to Dublin, what hope have we from Cahersiveen to Tralee and from Killarney to Cork? I cannot understand what has gone wrong,” he said.

“My daughter gets on the number 40 bus on a Sunday evening and comes back on a Thursday or Friday. It is always full and she is standing on it most of the time. What has gone wrong?” Deputy Healy Rae asked.

“It is clear that National Transport Authority (NTA) is not getting answers from the company on what routes it will cut,” he said.

Echoing the sentiments of his party leader Fianna Fáil Deputy John Brassil called on Shane Ross to intervene and do what he can to resolve the dispute.

While Minister Ross is legally constrained in what he can do, Deputy Brassil said he has the power to provide greater state support to Bus Éireann via Public Service Obligation contracts that could protect threatened routes and lessen the financial pressure on the company.

Speaking to The Kerryman in Tralee on Thursday FF leader Micheál Martin questioned whether the situation would have been resolved by now if it only affected the capital, as was the case in the Luas and Dublin Bus disputes.

As The Kerryman went to press the NTA announced plans to plug the gaps in some services that Bus Éireann plans to scrap.