Successive governments are responsible for the traffic gridlock in Dublin, Cork and other large urban centres, the general secretary of the NBRU, Mr Peter Bunting, told the union's annual delegate conference in Ballina last night.
He called for taxation of parking spaces provided by companies to employees and tax relief for companies which provided employees with bus and rail tickets.
Mr Bunting put the economic cost of the Dublin gridlock at £1 billion. This included £402 million in the cost of accidents, £321 million lost to business through delays, and £106 million through damage caused by pollution.
He said Dublin's public transport system had the lowest level of government subvention of any public transport system in Europe. While Athens had 50 per cent of public transport costs covered by the government, Dublin received just 6 per cent of total expenditure.
Even in London, where private companies provided transport, government subventions were 18 per cent, he said.
"We the workers are sick, sore and tired of being the scapegoats for all the problems laid at CIE's door by the public.
"Once we were respected and appreciated by our communities for the services we provided."
Only statutory measures would solve the gridlock problem, he said.