Dublin Bus, the most important element of the capital's pitifully inadequate public transport system, faces lengthening stoppages followed by a complete closedown if no resolution to the current dispute is reached by March 12th. The main point at issue - as commuters trudged or drove to work yesterday - was neither wages nor costs. The argument centred on how to get the sides to talk to each other. Such a situation is intolerable and triggers uncomfortable memories of days easily forgotten in these times of economic boom. There were times when this State was internationally noted neither for economic growth nor for the flexibility of employees and managers but for record numbers of workdays lost due to industrial discord.
Intransigence and the digging in of heels on issues of doubtful principle were the order of the day for both sides. Getting opposing groups to talk took an inordinate amount of time. When they did get together it was, on far too many occasions, merely to glower at each other across the table. The end result was an economy, bedevilled by industrial unrest, which performed in precisely the opposite manner to that today. A return to such attitudes would be disastrous at a time when continued growth promises a better future.
Much has improved since those unenviable times, not the least the development of new systems designed to avoid industrial strife. Opposition deputies have called on the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, to intervene directly in the dispute. Her response has been that while she was in regular contact with both sides in an effort to find a basis for negotiations she was not considering direct intervention. There were, she said, established institutions to deal with these matters. At this stage Mrs O'Rourke is taking the right course. Government should become involved in industrial disputes only as a last resort. It is the duty of both sides to work towards settlement. Simply to sit back and hope for ministerial intervention is an unacceptable abdication of responsibilities.
It is up to Dublin Bus and the National Bus and Rail Union in the first instance to find a way to talk to each other directly rather than use the airwaves to berate each other while people struggle to go to work. The Labour Court can and should use its expertise in breaking the deadlock. Calls to this effect have been made by unions not involved in the dispute. It is strongly to be hoped that these calls will be heeded. No settlement can be reached without talks. In current circumstances Churchill's dictum "jaw jaw is better than war war" could be rendered as "talk talk is better than walk walk". Both sides must get down from their "principled" positions and let the talking begin.