Dublin Bus dispute - No easy way to reduce firm’s costs

The dispute at Dublin Bus will inevitably be settled.

All that remains at issue is how and when it will end and how much hardship will be inflicted on the semi-state company’s customers, especially those who rely on it to get to work, before normal services are restored.

The dispute is, unfortunately, a microcosm of the great and deeply divisive dilemma facing the country — to cut or not to cut, that is the question.