The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has dismissed reports he was forced into a U-turn on plans to privatise certain Dublin bus routes in order to avert transport strikes.
Mr Brennan said there was no change in the Government's policy of seeking to liberalise the bus markets and that "neither side had engaged in any U-turns".
Yesterday the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) abandoned plans for a series of strikes claiming the Minister had significantly moved from the position he had held for the past 20 months.
But speaking on RTE Radio this morning Mr Brennan rejected that this was because of a major climbdown on his part.
He said while progress in talks between transport unions and the Department of Transport at the Labour Relations Commission had been made neither side had significantly moved from its position.
He said a letter from the chairman of the talks, Mr Kevin Foley, held out the possibility that the objectives of both sides - protecting Dublin Bus while achieving a "genuine marketing opening" - could be met.
He said Government was still seeking "a genuine market opening to new entrants so the public have choice".
Mr Brennan said he believed "the most efficient way to do that is not naked open market deregulation but a form of competition called franchising".
He said he fully understood the unions' wish to protect their workers and their company but if we don't liberalise the market the EU would.
Mr Brennan said the talks were now dealing with the size of the Dublin bus market and how it is measured - whether this is in kilometres or in bus routes and how fast the market is growing.
"We are down to the level of detail where we can get genuine market opening and at the same time do the best we possibility can do for the existing bus companies," he said.
Fine Gael's transport spokesman Mr Denis Naughten called on the Minister to end the confusion about competition in the Dublin bus market by finally putting all his proposals into the public domain.
Mr Naughton said: "Mr Brennan and the unions appear to have two totally different impressions about what has been agreed.
"Minister Brennan has still not explained why the unions are under the impression that he has performed a u-turn.
"Either the unions have been duped by the Minister, or he's not telling the truth to the general public," he claimed.
"The Minister has said in the past that 25 per cent of routes will be offered to the private sector as franchises, yet today he makes no mention of what proportion will be offered.
