Unions, management meet to review Dublin Bus deficit

MANAGEMENT and unions at Dublin Bus are to meet at II a.m.today for "a state of the nation" review of the firm's finances, according to a company spokesman.

From January, the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications will award "public service contracts" to the company to provide certain services. These will replace the Government subvention to the company.

But when the contracts expire in three to five years future, contracts will be put to open tender.

Dublin Bus continues to make a loss. Last year its deficit was £10.8 million, reduced to £7 million on receipt of the Government subvention of £3.8 million. That subvention will be down to £2.5 million this year, and will be eliminated from next year.

This meant that a reduction in costs of £8 million per annum had to be achieved, "possibly over three years", the spokesman said. The purpose of today's meeting, with representatives from the National Bus and Rail Workers Union and SIPTU, was to inform them of the situation and to begin preparing a plan to achieve such savings.

He said the company had had no fare increases since 1991, despite having to absorb inflation and fulfil PESP requirements.

It had also been replenishing the fleet to the value of £10 million a year since 1990. The requirement was for £12 million to be spent on new vehicles, but that had proved difficult to fund.

Though payroll was a major cost, he did not anticipate staff reductions beyond the voluntary programmes already in place.

Savings might be made in the area of claims by public and staff, which last year meant setting aside £9.123 million as an insurance provision.

That figure amounted to "9 per cent of the company's total revenue for the year", and had gone up from £7.386 million in 1994.

But claims had fallen with the installation of security screens on buses the auto fare system, and security cameras.

The number of robberies had decreased and injured staff on leave fell from 115 last December to 48 at present.

Both sides would today be "examining the company's traditional way of doing business with a view towards greater efficiency".

Mr Peter Bunting, general secretary of the NBRU, did not know what to expect at today's meeting. He understood it would be "informative" but said there was little more the unions could give.

Since 1986, they had co-operated in helping to reduce the Government subvention "Won £25 million to £2 million", 1,800 jobs had gone, and there had been just "one three day dispute" over the period. "What else can we give?" he asked.

Staff at the company could not absorb further reductions in their earning power, he said. He criticised Government plans to withdraw the subvention, asking who would pay for free travel for pensioners and social welfare recipients.

He saw the proposed changes as "an attempt to create an underclass of employees" in the company, for which he blamed the Minister for Transport, Mr Lowry.

He queried plans to spend "so much money" on the proposed "Luas light rail network, which would be able to transport "a maximum of 5,000 people at a time" when a bus service with "dedicated 24 hour bus lanes" would probably do the job as well and for "a fraction of the cost".

No one from SIPTU was available for comment on today's talks.