The refusal of CIÉ workers to accept fares yesterday was not "very bright" and will leave taxpayers paying the bill, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said.Responding to the action, the Taoiseach, speaking before a meeting with the social partners, said it was "a breach" of the Programme for Sustaining Progress.
"It is a breach, any kind of industrial action is a breach. It has happened. I hope it doesn't happen again," said Mr Ahern in Dublin Castle.
"If people in semi-States, and particularly in CIÉ, think that foregoing fares for the day to damage the company is actually helping jobs, then they are wrong," he said.
No one in the private sector would believe that it made sense "to open up your shop for a day and to give out goods for nothing".
"It is simple enough," he said.
The Government has a responsibility to secure better public services for taxpayers, who are meeting the €1.2 billion cost of benchmarking, he said.
"There is no threat to jobs. There is an issue that trade unionists are now being paid benchmarking. It is a large amount of money.
"To do that we have to have changes. We can't go on like this," said Mr Ahern, who was joined by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. In his formal speech at the meeting of the social partners, the Taoiseach said the Government wanted world-class services at competitive prices.
"I see no need for confrontation on this issue if we can engage in real dialogue about the needs of customers and the legitimate needs of taxpayers," he said.
However, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr David Beggs, said the CIÉ action was "an intelligent protest". Clearly annoyed, Mr Beggs said: "It seems to me that it would have been an awful lot worse if we had no transport running today. You have to understand that the people working in CIÉ are scared stiff about their future. They have to register some kind of protest," he said.
Questioned about Mr Beggs' description of the CIÉ protest as "intelligent", Ms Harney said: "I can't say that. It is the taxpayers who are going to pay for it.
"CIÉ is a very heavily subsidised company. I don't think it is the way to do business," she said, adding that 16 years of social partnership has brought "unprecedented growth".
In her speech, the Tánaiste told unions that the public would decide whether social partnership was delivering the conditions necessary for "sustained economic and social progress".
"The judges of the relevance of partnership and of our success are the public we serve, not ourselves to each other," she said.
Irish Business and Employers' Confederation director general Mr Turlough O'Sullivan criticised CIÉ workers for the "No Fares Day" protest. "It is most unfortunate at a time when the economy is in difficulties, when there are job losses at the rate of 1,000 a week, I think it is unbelievable that trade unionists would embark on this kind of action."