He has played a “blinder” according to O’Leary.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross told Pat Kenny on Friday that he will not step in to resolve the Bus Éireann dispute with taxpayers’ money after strikes brought much of the country to a halt on Friday morning.
The strikes by Bus Eireann workers commenced after talks broke down between management and unions at the Workplace Relations Commission over cost cutting plans by management of the company. These include €12 million worth of pay cuts.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary appeared on Newstalk’s Yates on Sunday with Ivan Yates, where he spoke in positive terms about how Shane Ross has handled the current crisis.
Yates asked O’Leary what he thought of Ross’s handling of the bus issue and what he thought of him as a Minster for Transport in general.
“Firstly, I think he’s played a blinder on the bus transport, on the bus issue, because he has stayed out of it,” said O’Leary. “The Minister should stay out of those issues, where you have public sector unions running around trying to kind of suck Minsters and politicians into resolving disputes.
“Bertie [Ahern] as you remember was a great man for, you know, opening the cheque book and buying off the unions over many years, and we are still dealing with the damage that that caused.
“You have to stay out of it, let the management of Bus Eireann manage it and let the unions realise, that they have to accept that, there is management in place and they have to deal with the management.”
When Yates argued that the matter will only be settled by negotiation at the end of the day, O’Leary responded.
“You will only get negotiation and common sense from unions when they understand that the government won’t come along and open the cheque book again or that they can’t blackmail the government using their kind easy platform on RTE all the time to blackmail politicians.
“The problem is in this country, is that Dublin is a village and the politicians feel under pressure to get involved in things that they shouldn’t be involved in,” O’Leary said.
Michael O'Leary: Shane Ross 'playing a blinder' in Bus Éireann dispute: https://t.co/VQyO83Ynhk @IvanYatesNT pic.twitter.com/Z2mVp42pR4
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) April 2, 2017
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