The Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association says its members were willing to work the controversial new deal for train drivers under protest, provided they were guaranteed two rest days a week, a maximum nine-hour day and no part-time drivers were used.
This offer emerged last night after 19 ILDA members were released from Garda custody after forcibly occupying the CIE bord room in Heuston Station.
According to ILDA executive member Mr Finbarr Masterson concession of these points would mean the ILDA was accepting 90 per cent of the new deal.
The association's executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said the proposals had been given to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, four days ago but she had failed to respond. Ms O'Rourke was not contactable last night to comment on the ILDA claims.
They came at the end of an eventful evening which began at 4.55 p.m., when 20 ILDA members forced their way through the security entrance at Heuston Station and barricaded themselves in the boardroom. Most brought sleeping bags and food, and Mr Ogle said they would stay "as long as it takes" to settle their 10-week old dispute with CIE's subsidiary, Iarnrod Eireann.
Initially management seemed content to leave the ILDA members in possession of the boardroom while it considered its legal options. However at 9.20 p.m. a force of about 20 uniformed and plain clothes gardai arrived to remove them.
All but one of the ILDA members refused to leave, but did not resist when gardai removed them from the premises. It is not expected that they will face criminal charges unless they occupy the building again.
The drivers were in high spirits as they left Kevin Street Garda Station later and Mr Ogle thanked the officers "for the way they did a very difficult job". He said the association would be meeting "within a matter of hours" to decide its next move.
A spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann described the occupation as "ridiculous" and aimed at unnecessarily prolonging the dispute.