Shane Ross shucks off old role of rabble-rousing journalist

Bus Éireann needs “root and branch changes and cultural changes”, Minister for Transport Shane Ross told a lengthy session of the Oireachtas committee dealing with transport.

If the changes are anything like the cultural transformation Ross himself has undergone, the company might not recognise itself in future.

TDs love nothing more than reminding the Minister of his past life as a crusading business journalist, a campaigner against the waste of public money, and an activist small shareholder in a variety of big companies. Some of them were at it again when he appeared before the Oireachtas committee on transport, tourism and sport, the diverse and sprawling department over which he presides.

Although he has had his scrapes in maintaining Cabinet cohesion, Ross has taken to Ministerial office with relish. But also, as was evident at his committee appearance, he has just as clear an understanding of what the office does not involve as he does of the weighty responsibilities now occupying his working hours.

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He repeatedly ruled out getting involved in the “nitty gritty” of the industrial dispute at Bus Éireann. He rejected suggestions from TDs that he should seek to mediate in the dispute between management and unions at the cash-strapped State company.

Me and my chequebook

“They want me to come in with my chequebook,” Ross said. “I don’t want to do that. That is not the role of the Minister in these disputes.” Rather, it was up to both sides to together solve the company’s problems, he believed.

Fianna Fáil TD Kevin O’Keeffe complimented Ross for his role as a crusading journalist over the years, recalling that when defending the rights of small shareholders, he would turn up at company agms and berate the management for their poor performance. But now that he was the sole shareholder in State companies, O’Keeffe said, he did not seem to be interested in such activism.

It’s not hard, though, to imagine what Ross the journalist and campaigning small shareholder would have said about Bus Éireann. It would go something like this:

“The fat cat bosses of Bus Éireann have presided over a bus crash, not a car crash. The company is losing money, hand over fist. The blasted beards who want as much subsidy as possible for as little productivity as possible want a pay rise. They serve their members’ interests. Meanwhile the Minister, who is supposed to safeguard the taxpayers’ interests, sits on his hands.

“The Minister needs to sort it out,” Ross would surely have gone on. “The solution is obvious. He needs to let private operators bid for the services Bus Éireann provides. We all know they’d manage it more efficiently than the bloated bureaucracies of the beards under the dead hand of the State. Look at what happened with Ryanair. But will the Minister do it? Not a chance. The taxpayer gets screwed – again.”

Not me

However, Ross the journalist is no more. And Ross the Minister spent much of his three and a bit hours before the committee explaining to its members what he was not responsible for.

“I am not going to micromanage any of these state bodies.”

“This is not a matter of Ministerial responsibility.”

“It’s a question I don’t know because it’s not my responsibility.”

And so on.

This all may be entirely true. But Ross has indicated that subsidies for particular routes may be increased “as resources allow”. Increased subsidies are a key demand of the unions, so he is already involved to that degree. The State gives Bus Éireann €40 million a year in subsidies to operate routes that are “socially necessary but commercially unviable”. A further €150 million in taxpayer funds are given to the company to run school buses.

It’s hard to see how Ross can avoid becoming dragged into the dispute, whether he thinks it’s his responsibility or not.