THERE is mounting concern in the Government at the way in which senior CIE management is seeking to implement its viability plan.
A series of strikes is threatened from next week by unions protesting at proposals to shed 800 jobs and cut costs by £44 million a year.
The crisis was discussed at Thursday's Cabinet meeting. According to one Government source, the view was that change was necessary but that the company's management was being "totally inflexible and unimaginative about how to achieve it".
Another Government source said yesterday that a national transport strike in the run-up to Christmas would be "politically disastrous".
earlier in the day, nearly 2,000 CIE workers marched to Heuston Station in Dublin.
The march was organised by SIPTU but fully supported by its traditional rivals, the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union.
SIPTU's regional secretary, Mr Jack Nash, said the protest was to express "the anger and frustration of workers at the way the company has attempted to push through change" As they reached Heuston Station, the marchers chanted "out, out, out!".
Mr Nash accused the chief executive of CIE, Mr Michael McDonnell, in a letter handed over during the march, of choosing "the path of diktat, deadlines and misinformation
However, CIE's head of programmes, Dr Ray Byrne, said management's door remained open for negotiation.