NBRU Press Release

The NBRU today responded to the announcement by Irish Rail that they were inviting the trade unions to an intensive period of engagement next week.

General Secretary Dermot O’Leary said “ it is regrettable that the company have decided to impose a pre-condition in advance of suggested discussions by indicating that they would implement the cost retrenchment measures without agreement, while the NBRU has never refused to engage in any process which will seek to progress issues, we do not believe that the responsibility for securing the future of Irish Rail lies exclusively with staff, asking staff to effectively buy a pig in a poke in the absence of surety from the shareholder, i.e. the Minister with regard to the future is one which our members’ have consistently rejected”

Mr O’Leary went on to say: “it appears that the Ministers sole role here is to goad staff into a reaction in an effort to deflect from his own responsibilities, a reduction in subvention and an expectation that you can maintain current service levels are just not compatible, this and the necessity to robustly attack the non-payroll cost base will have to be factored into any discussions”