Rail strikers call for talks move

The rail strike could be over within hours if all sides in the dispute showed "a little bit of imagination", Mr Brendan Ogle, executive secretary of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA), has said.

As the unofficial action enters its 47th day, Mr Ogle urged the Government to establish a negotiating process on the "New Deal for Drivers" which, agreed last January between Iarnrod Eireann and the two recognised unions within the company, sparked the dispute.

Mr Ogle said the recognition issue should be set aside for now and a process put in place which specifically did not refer to it.

The breakaway group has received the date of November 15th for its Supreme Court appeal over the issue.

"Obviously, the prospect of the dispute continuing until then will fill everyone with dread, and while that hearing may solve the recognition issue, it will not solve the dispute," said Mr Ogle.

However, Iarnrod Eireann said there was no question of reopening negotiations on the pay deal, approved after four years of negotiations by a majority of SIPTU and National Bus and Rail Union members.

The deal provides for an increase in basic pay from £14,500 to £29,500 and the replacement of six-day and seven-day weeks with a five-day week. However, it also entails an end to premium payments for working Sundays and bank holidays.

The agreement was to pave the way for negotiations with other company employees, but those negotiations have stalled as a result of the dispute.

Iarnrod Eireann's human resources manager, Mr John Keenan, said "we are in a pressure cooker situation. We have 5,300 employees, 130 grades, 11 trade unions and a history of low pay. There are fierce pressures on the system."

Mr Keenan reiterated the company would welcome back any striking drivers "without any recriminations". Three such drivers have returned to work since the beginning of the week, he claimed, adding "over 25 per cent of ILDA members and two-thirds of the driver population are now back working".

But Mr Ogle denied this was the case and said the ILDA members were "as committed as ever".

Meanwhile, Fine Gael's spokesman on tourism and sport, Mr Bernard Allen, said the Government had to accept political responsibility for the strike.

"Minister O'Rourke and Tourism Minister Jim McDaid must take joint action to deal with this serious situation which is causing untold damage to our major industry.

"It is disingenuous of Fianna Fail deputies in the regions to indulge themselves calling for political action when they refused to use the Oireachtas Committees system to put pressure on the warring parties to come together and find a resolution to this problem."

The newly formed Killarney Rail Action Group also appealed to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, to intervene. In a letter signed by leading business, sporting and tourism figures, the group said "Killarney and the rest of Kerry is being devastated by the rail strike".

It also pointed out business was down about 20 per cent, representing a loss of £25 million. "If this strike were biting in Dublin, it would have been solved within a week," the group said.

Information about today's rail services can be obtained from Iarnrod Eireann at 1850 366 222 or www.irishrail.ie