It is not likely to be seriously disputed that the underdeveloped state of our transport infrastructure is an obstacle to Ireland's social and economic progress. Most would probably take the view that our failure to invest in it over the years was a mistake. And there have been some spectacular public policy failures in this area, such as the closure of the Bray-Harcourt Street line in 1958, writes David Begg
In this context the high-profile engagement of the current Minister for Transport is being seen as evidence of government getting to grips with a long-standing problem and seeing off the so-called vested-interest groups standing in his way. The issues are in reality more complex, and we have not had any debate on the merits of the policy direction being followed.
We have, on the other hand, a huge debate about the industrial relations aspects of the Minister's plans, with interventions from a whole range of actors all pushing their own interests, a debate which has generated more heat than light; and this first intervention of mine is for the purposes of trying to move that debate on to the policy issues.
Congress represents 767,000 members affiliated through individual trade unions, the bulk of whom reside in the Republic. Clearly we have a responsibility to assist unions with members in the transport sector to protect their security and conditions of employment.
We also have a responsibility to represent the interests of workers in general who depend on public transport and for whom an efficient transport infrastructure is essential to their employment.
When the Sustaining Progress social partnership agreement was negotiated it was plain to see that restructuring in the semi-State companies had the potential to cause industrial relations problems and possibly even destabilise the agreement. For this reason we agreed a protocol with Government setting out five principles by which this restructuring would be dealt with.
There have been repeated assertions that what is at issue is the right of government to govern. Let me be very clear about this; Congress does not, never has and never will as long as I have anything to do with it, intervene in the political governance of the country.
But trade unions have the right to seek to protect their members' employment, and Congress has the right to express an opinion to government on public policy issues. In this case we have a specific protocol for so doing.
In the particular cases of Aer Rianta and Dublin Bus I believe it is possible to reach an agreement with the Minister for Transport which will protect the employment and conditions of the workers there. However, this requires an alternative approach to the objectives he has set out.
In the case of Aer Rianta there are two essential components to the Minister's position:
- Autonomy for Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports.
- A private competitive second terminal in Dublin.
I believe autonomy can be achieved by restructuring Aer Rianta along the lines of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) and Central Bank restructuring recently implemented by Government.
This would allow all the economies of scope and scale associated with the current Aer Rianta structure to be combined with autonomous boards for each airport. Success is a function of what powers are given to the airports' boards and the overall board respectively.
Congress has no objection to a second terminal at Dublin Airport, or 10 terminals if required for capacity reasons. We see no case, on the other hand, for a competing terminal (although we have no principled objection to private financial involvement in its construction ).
The problems with a privately operated competing terminal are legion, being associated with the division of airside and roadside assets and responsibilities. And, at a time of increasing insecurity in aviation, division of responsibility for passenger safety and security would be a major headache with a private competing terminal.
There have been four independent reports on the private-terminal question and not one has made a case for it. On the contrary, all have said that landing charges would increase. Nor is there an appropriate working model elsewhere in the world that could be drawn on to support the idea.
Another factor impinges on aviation policy - the prospective EU/US "Open Skies" policy which has particular implications for the viability of Shannon which are too complex to go into in any detail here.
In the case of Dublin Bus the Minister wants to open the market to competition. This concept was accepted by the National Partnership Transport Forum a couple of years ago so, as such, there is no principled objection to market opening on our side.
What is at issue are the extent and timescale of market opening, and whether alternative modalities to franchising, the preferred option of the Minister, can be considered.
One positive feature of the bus market is that it is expanding, and it would be possible to achieve the Minister's objective for private-sector involvement without reducing the scale of Dublin Bus current operations or their potential to expand.
The National Partnership Transport Forum involves business and other interests as well as the unions, and its report was a compromise. The preferred option for the future of bus transport favoured by Congress is that of the most successful international comparators, Zurich or Toronto - public ownership.
The proven strength of the partnership approach to doing things in this country over the last 15 years is the ability to solve problems. It seems to me we should apply this methodology to current issues in the transport sector and not approach them on an ideological basis.
Market-based solutions sometimes have unintended outcomes, as the experiences of Eircom should teach us. The potential to turn the bus market into a private monopoly exists, too, if it is not properly planned.
While public policy should not be made in the interests of workers in any sector, it should not be made at the behest of other interests either.
I believe also that it would do much to improve the climate if there was some recognition of the excellence of the service provided by Dublin Bus and the international record of success of Aer Rianta.
David Begg is general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions