Committee breaks off rail strike talks

An Oireachtas committee examining the rail dispute yesterday voted not to hear submissions from union representatives, despite inviting them to the meeting. It also voted not to hear a submission from the breakaway Irish Locomotive Train Drivers' Association (ILDA).

After hearing from representatives of Iarnrod Eireann and the Department of Public Enterprise and Transport, members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport voted to end the discussions.

The decision, carried by 11 votes to three, followed an intervention by the Labour TD, Mr Emmet Stagg, who appealed to his fellow committee members not to continue with the hearings.

"It's not our business to try and sort out an industrial dispute. If we seek to do that I believe we are going into an area that we have no experience in and we may do more harm than good," he said.

Mr Brendan Ogle, executive secretary of ILDA, accused the committee of allowing a "propaganda exercise" to take place. "It has permitted a State agency and a semi-State company to engage in character assassinations of our trade union and its executive and allowed clearly false statements in relation to this trade union and its members to be displayed to the media."

National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) and SIPTU representatives, who had been invited to the meeting, would not comment on the decision. However, NBRU spokesman Mr Peter Bunting later said the committee's decision was "a wise one".

Mr Jim Higgins, the Fine Gael TD who called the meeting, said he could not understand the decision. "This dispute is only going to be resolved by people talking to each other and unfortunately the manner in which today's process was aborted seems to deny that reality." During the meeting, the managing director of Iarnrod Eireann, Mr Joe Meagher, said the six-week disruption had cost his company about £5 million. He appealed to drivers on strike to return to work and pursue their grievances through the established procedures or through the recognised unions.