A plan by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to introduce an independent regulator for the Dublin bus market was condemned yesterday by the National Bus and Rail Union at its biennial conference in Galway.
Delegates will today hold a special session to discuss the 24-hour public transport strike planned for next Thursday by the other main CIÉ union, SIPTU. The NBRU does not support the reasons advanced by SIPTU for the strike, but has been careful not to get drawn into a public row on the issue.
Mr Liam Tobin, the NBRU general secretary, told The Irish Times that his union would not be instructing or advising its members on what to do next Thursday. But he said NBRU members would not pass the official pickets of another union.
This means that unless SIPTU calls off the action, all Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann services will be shut down on Thursday. A six-hour airports stoppage from 7.30 a.m. is also planned by SIPTU the same day.
Unions in CIÉ are opposed to Mr Brennan's plan to break up the company and franchise out 25 per cent of the existing Dublin bus market to private operators.
Talks have broken down several times, but a new set of negotiations under the chairmanship of Mr Kevin Foley of the Labour Relations Commission began last month. SIPTU has cited the "lack of meaningful progress" in talks as the main reason for Thursday's stoppage, while the NBRU says the talks are going well.
Mr Tobin said Mr Brennan's plan for a regulator was modelled on a policy that had been tried in Britain and had failed.