Sir, - I write to you as a concerned locomotive driver and member of the Irish Locomotive Drivers Association (ILDA). As you and your readers may know, for the past three years Iarnrod Eireann has being trying to implement a viability plan which would completely change the face of train driving in Ireland. Since the inception of the ILDA in September 1998 we have continually highlighted to Iarnrod Eireann management our concerns about the safety implications of this plan.
So concerned are we that, in April of this year, we sent a petition to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke; Mr John Keenan, manager, human resources, Iarnrod Eireann; and Mr Ted Corcoran, manager, safety, Iarnrod Eireann. The petition was signed by 188 mainline locomotive drivers from all three unions representing them. The fact that these same points of concern are still in the plan - which by the way, may be balloted on by members of SIPTU/NBRU on October 11th, 12th and 13th (with a recommendation to accept) - shows the utter contempt the above named people have for this petition. These concerns have also been brought to the attention of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport in a submission by the ILDA Secretary (B. Ogle) dated April 4th, 1999.
Our concerns are as follows:
1. The shortening of driver training programs from 72 weeks to 48 weeks.
2. Extending the number of hours a driver can work in one day from nine hours to 10 or more.
3. In 1994, the Labour Court capped the maximum number of miles a driver could work in one day at 360 for safety reasons. The company now propose to raise this to 420 miles a day.
4. Most controversially, the introduction for the first time, anywhere in the world, of contingency or "part-time" drivers. This would entail members of staff from various departments within the company being "trained" as locomotive drivers. When their training was completed they would return to their "full-time" positions within the company. They would then be called on at irregular times to work trains whenever a shortage of "full-time" drivers occurred.
I would like to make the following appeals:
1. To the Minister for Public Enterprise and the Iarnrod Eireann management team concerned: please reconsider the safety implications of this plan.
2. To my colleagues in SIPTU/ NBRU: consider these grave safety implications before to going to ballot.
3. To your good selves in the print and broadcast media: investigate fully the safety implications to train and passenger safety contained in this viability plan, before you find yourselves reporting a tragedy on the scale of the Paddington rail disaster here in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Frank McCartney, Locomotive Driver (Dundalk), Kilnasaggart Road, Jonesboro, Co Down.