The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, early this morning ordered an inquiry into the escalating dispute at Dublin Airport. In consultation with the Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr Kitt, the Tanaiste requested that an inquiry be carried out under Section 38 (2) of the Industrial Relations Act 1990.
The inquiry is to be undertaken by the former Irish Congress of Trade Unions president, Mr Phil Flynn, and Mr Dan McAuley, the former chairman of the Labour Relations Commission. Ms Harney has asked Mr Flynn and Mr McAuley to report to her with the findings as soon as possible.
Mr Flynn is currently chairman of ICC Bank, while Mr McAuley is a consultant who holds a number of directorships.
A spokesman for the Tanaiste said Ms Harney made her decision following late night talks with the social partners in the light of the serious developments at the airport.
In her statement, Ms Harney expressed dismay at the sudden deterioration of the dispute between SIPTU and Ryanair. She said it would be very wrong if innocent parties, especially the travelling public, were inconvenienced by unwarranted action.
The statement from Ms Harney requested the full co-operation of both SIPTU and Ryanair so that the dispute could be brought to a speedy resolution.
She also asked SIPTU members and other airport staff outside of Ryanair not to take any action that would damage or undermine their companies, their suppliers, or inconvenience their customers.
Yesterday, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, called for a Garda investigation into claims that striking Ryanair workers were under surveillance by private investigators. The company has describes as "totally untrue" claims that investigators have been working for it.
In one instance, a striker complained to gardai that his home was under surveillance. Gardai confirm that they investigated the allegations and concluded the assertion was true but that the surveillance was not illegal.
A private security industry source has confirmed that he has been engaged by SIPTU to "protect its offices in Dublin Airport from electronic bugging devices". When asked to confirm this, a senior union official initially did so but then requested a "no comment" response.
Mr Quinn, calling for a Garda investigation, said: "A new low has been reached in Irish industrial relations. So far in this dispute Ryanair has acted in an irresponsible and heavy-handed manner, which has been, to say the least, unhelpful." Mr Eamon Gilmore, the transport spokesman for Democratic Left, yesterday accused Ryanair of unacceptable tactics. "They are going to extraordinary lengths to crush the baggage-handlers. The Government must legislate to make Labour Court decisions binding. There are laws relating to surveillance, and in this case the Garda should investigate and find out if these laws have been transgressed." Mr Oliver Donoghue, the spokesman for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said he had never come across anything like this in an industrial dispute. "This is totally unacceptable and amounts to a new low in terms of industrial relations in this country."
Workers in the dispute claim that a pattern of surveillance has been emerging since a minority of them began agitating for trade union recognition last April. Around that time, a series of meetings took place between some of the workers and officials from the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union, at the Regency Court Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin.
According to a striker who asked not to be named because, he said, of a clause in the contracts of Ryanair employees prohibiting "the making public statements to any member of the communications media", people attending the meetings were watched. "The same guy would stand at the bar and keep watching us when we had meetings. He definitely wanted his presence to be known."
This week The Irish Times submitted a list of questions to Mr Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, asking him if the company had any connection with or knowledge of the alleged surveillance of strikers. Mr O'Leary declined to comment and referred queries to the company's public relations advisers, Murray Consultants. They said all such allegations were "totally untrue".