Bigger picture solution needed - Bus strike threatened

The threat of a bus strike should Bus Éireann impose pay cuts is as inevitable as the need for Bus Éireann to take radical action to restore solvency.

The company lost around €9 million last year despite subsidies of more than €40m. Bus Éireann employees, naturally and rightly, will fight to defend their conditions and argue that the scale of Government support is the issue rather than pay rates.

Their arguments are informed too by the understanding that their peers working for private bus companies are not paid anything like they are and do not enjoy comparable security or pension rights.