Efforts to avert a series of public transport strikes due to start next week are to begin today with the resumption of talks at the Labour Relations Commission.
Unless significant progress is made within days, the National Bus and Rail Union says it will proceed with a one-day strike planned for Tuesday of next week.
The action would cause a complete shutdown of Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus services for the day.
The Luas light rail system in Dublin would not be affected.
A further series of strikes, culminating in a three-day stoppage, is planned by the NBRU for August and September.
Today's talks, the first between the parties for more than a month, are viewed as a final push to reach agreement on the future organisation of public transport.
In letters to the parties in recent days, the chairman of the talks, Mr Kevin Foley of the LRC, has expressed confidence that there are sufficient grounds for a settlement.
Unions have been engaged in a row with the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, since November 2002, when he announced reforms, including a plan to dismantle CIÉ and introduce increased competition.
They were particularly opposed to his plan to have 25 per cent of the Dublin bus market placed under the control of private operators by the beginning of this year.
Agreement has proved elusive, and talks have broken down on several occasions. However, in his letter to the parties late last week, Mr Foley said he had reviewed the issues since last meeting the parties on June 8th.
He was confident that an outcome could be achieved that would address key concerns to the satisfaction of the unions while also achieving the genuine market opening required by the Department.
A lot of ground remained to be covered, he said, and he was inviting the parties to attend for renewed discussions at the LRC this morning.
A Department of Transport spokeswoman said it welcomed the development and its officials would be attending.
The NBRU general secretary, Mr Liam Tobin, said the union would also be present, in spite of its threat of industrial action.
Mr Foley, he said, had indicated that he wanted to take matters through to a conclusion. "That's what we all want. We will certainly go along to hear what the chairman and the Department have to say."
Mr Tobin said any decision to review the NBRU's strike threat would depend on what came out of the talks. "If we don't make significant progress then we'll certainly be going ahead [with the strike]".
There was no question, he added, of the action being called off simply because the union had been invited to talks.
The other main CIÉ union, SIPTU, had called last week for the talks at the LRC to to be reconvened immediately. The call was supported by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
SIPTU has not planned industrial action, but its members would not pass NBRU pickets and vice versa, so a strike by either union would close down CIÉ services.
Luas is not affected because it is not a CIÉ company.
The NBRU decision to strike followed what it claimed was a delay on the Department's part in providing a definitive response to union concerns about the future of Dublin Bus.
In the meantime, it said, the Department was continuing to issue licences to private operators.
Mr Tobin claimed the manner in which licences were being issued did not nothing to enhance competition or improve services to the public.
Rather, he claimed, private operators were being allowed to "cherry pick" routes and schedules for "ridiculously low" licence fees.
Members of the NBRU voted by a nine-to-one majority for industrial action, commencing with a one-day stoppage on Tuesday, July 20th.
That is to be followed by a further one-day strike on August 4th, a two-day stoppage on August 24th and 25th and a three-day strike from September 7th.
