The minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has approved provision of an extra 100 buses for Dublin Bus.
She has also negotiated with Dublin Corporation on the provision of two large "park-and-drive" facilities for the capital to encourage motorists to switch to public transport.
The new car-parks, which will provide 1,100 secure spaces, will be located at the end of the N1, beside Whitehall church in Santry, and at the RDS. The latter will be temporary to help cope with Christmas traffic, but it is hoped to make Santry permanent.
A similar "park-and-ride" facility is being planned for Finglas in the New Year. This is planned to coincide with the extension of quality bus corridors into the city centre.
Both moves are clearly designed to meet some of the criticisms of Government transport policy made at the National Bus and Rail Union conference in Ballina on Thursday. Ms O'Rourke had originally said that she would not approve the extra buses until agreement was reached with the unions on a new viability plan for Dublin Bus.
Her decision to approve the extra vehicles, costing £16 million, indicates that after her informal discussions with the NBRU leaders on Thursday night she is fairly confident that agreement can be reached. She has also promised that she will go back to the CIE unions and consult with them fully before taking any decision on the sale of company property.
Two worker directors, Mr Bill McCamley and Mr Paul Cullen of SIPTU, threatened to resign if CIE properties were sold off.
However the NBRU worker director, Mr Michael Faherty, said yesterday that he was reserving his position in the light of Ms O'Rourke's proposals.
"When the Minister says that she will consult with the unions after receiving the report on the property audit next month, I am prepared to wait until she goes through the consultative process," he said.
"Only then will I decide what action to take, when my union has had an opportunity to discuss the issue."
Later he told the conference that investment in all three CIE companies was now critical to their survival. Iarnrod Eireann was worst affected, with "old jointed track and timber sleepers, in some cases over 70 years old" on some lines.
The longest section was the 86 miles linking Athlone with Westport and Ballina.
The average age of locomotives was 23 years, he said, and 60 were over 33 years old.