Row over bus routes escalates as unions seek meeting with Minister
SIPTU has sought a meeting with Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe as talks to put 10% of bus routes out to tender came close to collapse this weekend.
One-quarter of the Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets are now owned by the National Transport Authority (NTA) which can transfer them to whoever wins the tendered routes.
The NTA chiefs agreed to postpone the tendering programme by a further six weeks to mid-January after years of delays.
Siptu transport organiser, Owen Reidy said that it was necessary to meet the minister in order to address a range of critical issues which have emerged from the LRC discussions. The NTA has plans to put out to tender 10% of the routes currently serviced by Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, including in Dublin and Waterford.
Mr Reidy said that ‘the implications of what the union had learned are extremely serious for our members’.
Siptu and the rival National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) are afraid that if private operators win the routes from next year it may lead to lower pay rates for their members in both State bus companies. Both unions have been involved in bus strike threats over the past 18 months.
When Paschal Donohoe became Transport Minister in July he spelled out that he was forging ahead with the longdelayed tendering process.
Last year Leo Varadkar pledged that tendering would go ahead. He said that, if any of the three CIE companies could not achieve planned savings, he would oversee the appointment of a receiver and the disposal of assets.
Last year the NTA awarded two new operating licences to Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. An added provision was that after a further two years – in 2015 – 10% of its services would have been put out to tender.
That timescale has been revised, with the NTA now seeing the new tenders hoping to commence operations in August 2016.
It is understood that by 2016, the savings the State transport companies achieved following recent strikes will have been eroded.