Rail commuters seem trapped in a tunnel of uncertainty where services are concerned. A strike by DART drivers was only narrowly avoided on Monday and mainline passengers are having to find alternative means of transport today. Further disruption by signallers and level-crossing gate keepers is expected in the coming weeks.
This wave of disputes could not have come at a worse time for CIE. According to the National Development Plan, the Government intends investing £2.2 billion in public transport. The ongoing industrial relations unrest does not inspire confidence. It now seems unlikely that Dublin Bus will be successful in its bid for the LUAS light-rail system when it is up and running, and the proposed Metro system appears to be beyond reach for Iarnrod Eireann.
There has been criticism of the manner in which the rail safety programme is being implemented and the introduction of Quality Bus Corridors is running behind schedule, while the controversial Mini-CTC signalling system has been the subject of an Oireachtas investigation because of cost overruns.
The fundamental problems facing public transport in this State - underfunding and bad industrial relations - have not changed in decades. Low pay and long working hours have led to low morale within the workforce. Paradoxically, the reliance of employees on shift allowances and overtime to earn a living wage makes them suspicious of annualised hours agreements that drastically reduce the working week. This, in turn, makes it harder for CIE companies to recruit new staff, thus adding to the pressure on existing employees.
The present dispute involving signallers is a case in point. They are being offered an annualised hours agreement, but the increase in basic pay will not be sufficient to compensate all of them for lost overtime. But as Iarnrod Eireann's Human Resources manager, Mr John Keenan, has pointed out, there is a "learned expectation" among CIE workers that if they exhaust the negotiating process and then reject the final settlement in the bargaining process, there will be political intervention in the dispute and a final settlement will emerge from that.
The company may have hoped that the refusal of the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, to intervene in the ten-week dispute last summer with the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association would change this "expectation". To some extent it has, but the fact remains that workers performing essential services in keeping the transport infrastructure of the State going are on low basic pay.
Damaging strikes in the health services by comparatively much better paid nurses, doctors and paramedics, not to mention the current teachers' dispute, suggest that National Development Plans can no longer be just about proposals to give Irish society the physical infrastructure it needs. We also need to invest in the people who will operate that infrastructure.