The row between the public transport unions and the National Transport Authority (NTA) over plans to privatise 10 per cent of the routes operated by the two State bus companies boils down to employees' terms and conditions.

Both the National Bus and Rail Union and Siptu fear that members who move to private operators who successfully bid to operate the routes will lose out, and there will be a re-run of the problems thrown up by the privatisation of waste collection services.

Not so says the NTA, which argues that transfer of undertakings legislation will allow workers to continue to benefit from existing terms and conditions. The overall dispute was beginning to look intractable until a deal brokered at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday took at least some of the heat out of it.

The transport authority has agreed to pause plans to begin tendering for contractors to at least mid January from December 1st, the original date on which it planned to begin seeking bidders for routes from the private sector.

This allows some breathing space for both sides to thrash out some of the genuine difficulties that the talks to date have thrown up, including the fact that transfer of undertakings does not cover pension rights.

But amidst all of this, the possibility of a new solution, that could effectively allow both sides to achieve their individual aims, has more or less suddenly appeared: the expansion of bus services.

This includes Dublin Bus’s plans for a night service and the introduction of rapid bus transit - direct links from the capital to destinations such as Swords. The creation of new services will inevitably require more staff and could also offer opportunities for private operators.