Process of tendering 10% bus routes to continue, Minister says

The Government has no plans to deregulate the entire bus market but the process of putting out to tender 10 per cent of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann routes will continue, the Minister for Transport has said.

Paschal Donohoe said it was a matter for the National Transport Authority to decide as to whether any additional routes, currently operated by the State transport companies, would be put out to tender as part of future reforms in the market.

He said the authority had the legal responsibility to decide on the appropriate mix between the number of routes that would be put out to tender in the future and those that would be delivered under direct provision by the State transport companies.

He said the Government had invested over €100 million in he balance sheet of the overall CIE group in the recent past and would continue to support the role of public transport.

Mr Donohoe strongly welcome the calling off of strikes at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, which were scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday, on foot of lengthy talks over recent days at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

“The policy of tendering will continue and we will put in place a process to look at concerns that unions have in relation to this policy in the future. A report will come back to me later in the year and we will look at this process to ensure the confidence of all stakeholders in relation to the future of the bus market is maintained.”

The Minister declined to comment on whether he believed the two State companies should continue with a legal action against the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) and Siptu to recoup financial losses incurred in a previous two-day strike a fortnight ago. He said this was a matter for the companies.

The companies had contended that the strike was illegal, a charge strongly denied by the unions.

The work stoppages scheduled for this weekend, which would have affected the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers, were called off on foot of new proposals to tackle concerns of unions at moves by the National Transport Authority(NTA) - backed by the Government -to put out to tender 10 per cent of routes currently operated by the two State companies.

Unions were also fearful the further routes could be put out to tender as part of a second wave of reforms in the bus market in 2019.

The new five-page document of settlement proposals put forward by the LRC aimed to build on a commitment given previously by the Minister that no Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann employee would be forced to move to a private operator even if the State companies lost the rights to run some routes under the tendering plan.

The LRC suggested that a registered employment agreement should be concluded between unions and management at the two State companies under the scope of new legislation that is due to come into effect shortly.

It said the new registered employment agreement should set down that the current terms and conditions for employees will not be affected as a direct result of the tendering plan; that no staff member will be forced to transfer to a private operator and that any legacy costs arising to the companies as a result of the tendering plan will not be borne by employees.

The LRC has also proposed that under new legislation the unions and management jointly seek the Labour Court to establish a new sector employment covering the bus market which receives State subvention.

It said that any sector employment agreement concluded would have to be reflected by the NTA in contracts awarded.

Under the proposals any new operator that won contracts under the tendering process would have to adhere to the existing terms and conditions of any member of Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann staff who opted to transfer to them for the duration of any contract.

Financial penalties would put in place for breaches of employment obligations and operators could potentially lose their contracts.

Under the new proposals labour costs would be one, but not the sole criteria, considered in the evaluation of tenders.

Under the proposals a new consultation process will be put in place to clarify any perceived ambiguity in legislation on whether all other existing Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann routes would have to be put out to tender in 2019.

NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said: “We went into these set of discussions with a clear focus on what was required to address the concerns of our members as part of the original agreed inter-locked agenda; those concerns included the security of employment in both companies and the future in terms of seeing beyond 2019,” he said.

Siptu construction and utilities organiser, Owen Reidy, said: "We believe that if all sides honour their obligations and work collectively in a progressive way there will be no need for further industrial action.

“This agreement vindicates the SIPTU approach to this dispute. From the start we have been focused on the future of public transport. We have always wanted to protect decent jobs in the sector and reach agreement on a number of policy issues.”

Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann t welcomed the settlement proposals and said their full schedules would operate normally on Friday and Saturday.