Deal reached between management and drivers in bus dispute

Bus Éireann bosses have reached a deal with drivers.

Their announcement comes following marathon overnight talks between management and unions at the Labour Relations Commission.

There has been an agreement on a range of proposed cost saving measures.

They will now be put to trade unions for balloting.

If ratified, the agreement will start on the June 1 and is for 19 months until January 1, 2015.

A Bus Éireann statement said "the company does not anticipate any further industrial action at this time".

"For the sake of our customers, Bus Éireann welcomes the fact that all of our services will operate as normal on Thursday May 16, 2013 and going forward.

"We would once again apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused as a result of the recent industrial action."

However, Michael Faherty of the NBRU says he is not sure if workers will accept the proposals or not.

"I wouldn't be 100% sure. There are significant improvements there but will it be enough to get it over the line?

"That remains to be seen. There are still issues there that won't be acceptable to some of our members."

In addition, a spokesperson for Bus Éireann says the most important point is there will be no further disruption to services.

Andrew McLindon says management have made a significant contribution to this new deal: "Management make up around 4% of the company and the contribution they will be making is circa 20%.

"In addition the board and chairman of the company have made a 20% contribution in their director fees as well."

The Transport Minister said that he is hopeful the new deal reached between unions and management at Bus Éireann will help secure its future.

Update at 1pm

Leo Varadkar said that he is confident union members will give it the thumbs up.

"The important thing is that Bus Éireann services are protected for people and that the jobs in the company are secure," he said.

"If this agreement is ratified by ballot there's a very high probability that will be the case

"But really now it's for these members of those unions to ballot on it and I don't really want to make much further comment on it until they have had a chance to vote."