You might be better off minding your own house, Minister.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross is planning on taking a short sabbatical to broker peace between North Korea and the United States, and those concerned with trivial matters like Irish Rail strikes can’t quite believe it.
On Today with Sean O’Rourke on Friday morning, Waterford TD John Halligan spoke of his desire to visit North Korea on a peace mission with Independent Alliance colleagues Ross and Finian McGrath.
This despite the fact that the threat of massive transport stoppages in Ireland over the Christmas period looms large, with Ross accused of once again ignoring an industrial dispute.
“This isn’t new, we’ve had relations with North Korea in the past through Ceoltas… the greatest threat to peace at present in the world is on the Korean peninsula,” the Junior Minister said.
“Both (Shane Ross and Finian McGrath) have agreed to go if we can arrange it. We’ve already contacted the North Korean embassy in London through friends of mine and we’re waiting for a reply.
“What is there to lose by attempting to talk peace with North Korea?”
That Ross is planning a trip to the DMZ rather than taking on the national transport strike at Irish Rail has not gone unnoticed…
The National Bus and Rail Union’s Dermot O’Leary expressed exasperation when discussing Ross’s plans.
“I thought listening to the radio that I had fallen into a deep sleep and had woken up on the 1 April,” he said.
NBRU appalled that Minister Ross would attempt to go to North Korea whilst in the midst of an industrial relations dispute at Irish Rail pic.twitter.com/XIapTy6c6L
— NBRU (@NBRU_DUBLIN) November 3, 2017
“The suggestion, in the middle of a major rail dispute, that Minister for Transport Shane Ross would go off to North Korea in a bizarre attempt to establish relations with a regime that has an appalling record on human rights… is nothing short of dumbfounding, and is a clear demonstration of how much Ross and his Independent Alliance colleagues are out of touch with what is happening on their own doorstep.”
Think the #NorthKorea trip is a great idea. Shane Ross can apply all those negotiating skills that he has deployed so well in the various public transport disputes he's resolved …
— Roderic O’Gorman TD (@rodericogorman) November 3, 2017
Lots of negativity in my TL about Independent Alliance attempt to broker peace in NK
Not so sure its a bad idea. Shane Ross. In North Korea https://t.co/cbEnMRG6RY
— Gerard Brady (@GerardBrady100) November 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/MallowNews/status/926423664161062913
The NBRU says they're 'appalled' at suggestions Shane Ross would go to N.Korea to talk to Kim Jong Un but won't intervene in the #RailStrike
— Andrew Lowth (@AndrewLowth1) November 3, 2017
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