As sure as night follows day, there was always going to be a Bus Éireann strike after industrial action by Luas and Dublin Bus workers.

The union representing Bus Éireann workers left the Workplace Relations Committee today, having been told not only would no pay rises be forthcoming but that the Expressway service would need to be vastly restructured. Earlier this year, a ballot by NBRU members showed that 94% would be in favour of strike action were changes to be made to the service. “The company not alone indicated that it would not be in a position to contemplate any pay rises, but also dropped a industrial relations bombshell in relation to the future of the Expressway service, threatening the livelihoods of 800 Bus Eireann workers,” The Journal's Michelle Hennessy reports Dermot O'Leary, the general secretary of the NBRU, as saying. The union had gone into talks seeking pay rises of 5% over three years for its members, as well as the 6% agreed to in 2008 but which workers never received. Chief executive Martin Nolan of Bus Éireann warned of structural changes to the Expressway service as talks got underway on Wednesday. "These will involve separating out the Expressway product entirely from the rest of the business and implementing new terms and conditions for staff within the Expressway product," he said. "It is proposed to sub-contract a number of routes within the plan but it is expected that all routes currently operated will continue to operate." He then added that extra pay for staff is not a possibility as things stand. "In light of the above it should be clear that the overall trading position of the company dictates that no payroll increases can be contemplated at this time." Nolan said that increasing competition from low-cost operators, raised payroll costs due to the restoration of earlier pay cuts, and more claims against the company were the reason the Expressway business was losing so much money. O'Leary is not impressed, leaving strike action as a very real possibility. "The current Dublin Bus dispute and this crisis at Bus Eireann are not unconnected, there are huge question marks over the Department of Transport and its stewardship of the State-owned public transport services, cutting off vital financial support and overseeing a licencing regime which has now led to the potential decimation of an expressway service that connects into every nook and cranny in rural Ireland," he said.