G’way out of your “working man” shite. It’s already been outlined above that this is about protecting the few rather than the many, at the expense of the many.
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We should subsidise public transport but absolutely no rationale for having a state company to do it other than that’s the way we used to do it.
How does this tab with your support for the high wages of drivers?
“We should get this service for the high taxes we pay”- how does this square with paying for these high wages. We either pay these people less and continue the service or increase the subvention to cover these wages.
We need to follow the Nordic model
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He doesn’t give a fuck about the bus services etc. He’s all about gov handouts to be divied out to his union comrades.
Nor is there any rationale for only privatizing the most profitable routes and then claiming a state company doing the doggy work on the shit routes should act as a normal company. Two sides of the same coin.
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It’s good to call out the nonsense though.
The rationale is…the government have an obligation to keep transport available for young people and the elderly who need transport across the country, not just the profitable routes which would be the case if it was to be privatised.
Agreed - the whole lot should go out to tender with service obligations and employment standards etc with subsidies going to less profitable routes and potentially even charges to operate the profitable routes. My understanding is that the union lads wouldn’t be into this though …
I don’t disagree with you - if anything they should look to increase those services. There’s no gig-given law that Bus Eireann should be the service provider though. Sure as been pointed out they use local private operators half the time anyway!
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But thats the nature of business mate…no private bus company is going to service a route with two auld fellas and a dog into town every day at a loss.
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No - but if they were given a subsidy for it they might? We’re paying subsidies anyway, why not to the private bus company in return for an agreed quality of service? If they don’t deliver the service they don’t get the subsidy.
There’s no differenve then really other then my presumption that Bus Eireann drivers would be substantially better paid then their private counterparts.
So do you think the subsidies should have the end result of more public bus services or Bus Eireann drivers being paid substantially more than workers doing the same job?
No quite the opposite pal,
Workers deserve fair pay for a good days work.
The race to the bottom is a reality.
I wouldnt disagree with the idea of fair pay but what would you define as fair pay?
A comfortable living wage at least…its a responaible job…albeit not highly skilled.
So in or around the national average wage?
I would say 10k more on average given the treachery of our road network outside of the motorways.
I don’t understand why you think privatisation will solve all the problems or that it will make it fairer in some way.
Our history in this regard is extremely poor.
Private builders not fulfilling the conditions of developments or just building shite gaffs.
Private hospitals cherrypick easier procedures and illnesses injuries which take less time and are easier to cure/treat. No chance they’re getting bogged down with treating oul ones Who’ll take up beds for days/weeks.
It’s not long ago a bin company engineered a dispute so that they could introduce an entirely new team of drivers on the spot. They, conveniently, happened to be foreign drivers happy to work for less money.
And, yes, I do think state employees should be extremely well looked after because if they don’t who will?
As I’ve said before, I see no reason why routes aren’t tendered for in bundles if you have to sell them off. That we throw in some shit routes along with the good and attach minimum conditions of operation with regards to timetable and quality of service. But you just know there would be a way around it, because there always is. Human nature is to look after your own interests before others. And sure as fuck if you were a CEO of a bus company getting a bonus based on profits you’d be shaving away at all efficiencies and riding the staff pretty hard to make your target. Like 99% of people would.
It’s understandable but it’s still wrong. And it’s the job of government to stop that and not enable it.
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