All-Ireland final replay secondary to bus dispute, says union

The Dublin Bus dispute is more important than the All-Ireland football final replay, according to the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU).

Dermot O’Leary told Newstalk Breakfast that Dublin Bus workers still plan to strike on the day of the All-Ireland replay and that calls to consider the suspension of a 24-hour stoppage during the replay on October 1st are “premature”.

As it stands, a strike is scheduled to go ahead when Dublin meet Mayo again.

“There are 400,000 people that want this dispute resolved for them to attend their work, college and hospital on a regular, daily basis,” said Mr O’Leary.

“The football match, as important as it is - and we all love our sport in this country - that’s secondary when it comes to resolving this dispute,” said Mr O’Leary.

He says all the unions are prepared to return to the negotiating table - but he wonders what is stopping them.

Dublin Bus has received notification from Siptu of plans for further industrial action on September 27th and 28th, as well as October 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 18th, 19th, 24th, 26th, 29th in pursuit of a 15 per cent pay increase for drivers.

Dublin Bus says the industrial action “is unnecessary and unjustified and will continue to cause significant disruption to our customers and trade in Dublin city”.

The company says to date, this industrial action has cost them in excess of €4m.