Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday reiterated his concern that the Irish Ferries dispute could cause serious damage to industrial relations and he again urged the company to abide by the Labour Court recommendations on the dispute.
Mr Ahern said that he and the Government had worked hard to improve industrial relations in the country but he was seriously concerned about the damage being done by the dispute.
"I can understand why companies want to restructure and there are case studies for decades about how you do these things, but if you were to go out and try and invent in the year 2005 a ham-fisted way of upsetting everybody, this is a very good case study.
"The company are well aware of my view - I've said it to the senior management and to the investors, and Minister of State Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher pointed it out to them during the week but the company decided to escalate things," he said.
Mr Ahern said he was glad that Irish employers seemed to be moving towards the Government view as the country has enjoyed an "enormously successful development of industrial relations in recent years".
"Last year we lost 20,000 days to industrial disputes. Back in the 90s, we used to lose 100,000 days. In the 80s we used to lose 300,000 days and in the 1970s we used to lose 400,000 days, but we've reversed all that around.
He said he had "spent most of my political life changing the climate" and added: "So I just find it unbelievable that people would do this."