Comment: All sides in the conflict are backed into a corner, writes Cliff Taylor, Economics Editor
As the old song says: "Breaking up is hard to do." Two narrowly-averted stoppages relating to plans to dismantle State companies have put the focus on the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan's strategy and on the operation of "partnership" in the State sector. And neither looks very good under the spotlight. The Aer Rianta saga has been going on for more than a year and we have still to see a thought- through published strategy on what the aim of the break-up is and precisely how it will be achieved.
A common pattern has emerged. Mr Brennan angers the unions, they go to the brink and intervention by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, buys some time. The leak of a Cabinet memorandum on the issue late last year added a little spice to the drama.
Now the promise is that the unions and the Minister will sit down to discuss the issue, before publishing legislation some time after Easter. But the comings and goings over the past year do not augur well.
A sensible approach - once the Government decided that splitting Aer Rianta up was an option - would surely have been to have the pros and cons studied in detail. This would have produced a blueprint for discussion with the unions.
If the time came for the Government to have a row on the issue and push something through, at least it would have a clear idea where it was going.
Instead, we had a few months of Mr Brennan talking about breaking up Aer Rianta, leading to various confrontations with the trade unions.
Then, in July, the Government approved the move, leading to another row and a one-hour stoppage.
Subsequently it became clear that a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the issue raised questions about how the break-up would be structured. The leaking of this led to a further spat between the parties and frantic work by Mr Brennan's Department to come up with an approach that would actually work.
Now all sides - the Minister, the unions, and the company itself - are backed into a corner. The militant voices in the union movement are encouraged and an unwarranted stoppage was narrowly averted. It is surely the exact opposite of the way partnership should operate.
Much the same approach appears to have been taken to the break up of CIÉ and the introduction of competition on Dublin Bus.
A commitment in the Programme for Government, this has featured a similar industrial ebb and flow.
And we have still to see a clear statement on what the break-up of CIÉ will achieve, how the Government proposes to introduce competition to bus routes and what the implications are for public subsidising of the sector.
At least the two sides now appear to be sitting down and discussing the specifics of introducing competition on bus routes and may be making some progress.
There are clear deficiencies in the operation of our national airports and bus and train transport. Introducing competition is likely to be a key part of the solution, whether the unions like it or not.
But doing so - as we have seen in telecommunications and energy - is a complex task, requiring a clear view of objectives and how the new market will be regulated.
After all, in the energy market we have seen how competition has thus far resulted in higher prices.
Perhaps in the bowels of the Department of Transport, they have known from day one how it will all work out - but it certainly doesn't look that way. And the Taoiseach's statement at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' annual conference in Tralee last summer that it could all be worked out "in a spirit of partnership" now looks particularly brave.
