Protesting CIÉ workers, who are refusing to collect customer fares today, say further industrial action can be avoided if the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, agrees to reopen talks on his privatisation plans for public transport.
SIPTU's national industrial secretary Mr Noel Dowling said today's "No Fares Day" was aimed at triggering a public debate about the merits of Mr Brennan's proposals rather than imposing a veto over them.
"All the Minister's stated objectives for improving public transport can be achieved without confrontation. All we are asking is that he engage with us constructively," said Mr Dowling.
Today's protest, estimated to cost CIÉ up to €1.1 million in lost revenue, may also result in overcrowding on trains and buses if people seek to take advantage of the absence of fares. Both the company and its trade unions, however, have played down the risk. Mr Dowling remarked: "There are dangers . . . but I think people will be sensible."
A spokesman for the Minister said there were no definite plans for talks over the issue, although it might be raised in the context of a meeting this afternoon with ICTU and SIPTU at Government Buildings over the break-up of Aer Rianta.
He reiterated Mr Brennan was open to "constructive dialogue" and providing the "necessary reassurance" to those affected by change. The spokesman added: "There has been a fair amount of discussion already, a lot of it at the partnership forum, and the Minister would feel he is now progressing that." His plans include the franchising out of 25 per cent of Dublin's bus market to a private operator by next January.
The trade unions claim this will result in a public transport system similar to that in London which Mr Hugh Geraghty, secretary of the CIÉ group of unions, described yesterday as a "model for disaster".
At a press conference in Dublin, the unions cited figures suggesting the cost of running public transport in the English capital would reach £1 billion per year by 2006. At present, more than 2,000 people were employed in bus regulation alone, while a trans-European study showed London fared worst on reliability, staff behaviour and safety and only mid-range on value for money, according to the unions.
Mr Liam Tobin, general secretary of the National Bus and Railworkers' Union, noted Dublin Bus currently received a State subvention worth 25 per cent of operating costs. This "compared with 31 per cent paid by the British taxpayer to the private-owned London transport model Mr Brennan favours.
"Instead of being obsessed with paring down subventions and squeezing extra revenue out of our predominantly low-income passengers, Mr Brennan should be embracing imaginative social objectives such as 'no' or 'low' fare initiatives that would persuade more commuters to leave their cars at home."
He denied workers were trying to veto change and added: "We are conscious that that charge can be levelled at us but I don't think anybody would expect us to sit there and see our members' livelihoods be destroyed."
The Dublin Chamber of Commerce criticised today's action, saying it "clearly demonstrated that the public transport market needs more operators".
Fine Gael's spokesman on transport Mr Denis Naughten also criticised the protest, saying the Government should state clearly whether it was in breach of the partnership agreement.
