I wish to return to the urgent issue of Bus Éireann. Across Ireland this morning, buses delivered people to their schools, places of work, shops, homes and offices. Outside of Dublin, many, if not most, of those buses were operated for or on behalf of Bus Éireann, our national bus company. Over recent months, we have heard a lot of noise but have received little clarity about the future of this vital national company. There are conflicting reports on the status of Expressway and numerous scenarios as to what is actually happening within the company. What has become clear is that the crisis is being used to slash the terms and conditions of front-line staff working in Bus Éireann. This will further add to the race to the bottom in workers' terms and conditions across the bus industry. I understand proposals have been put forward that would cut earnings by 30%. They are also using a pay offer - a rise of 2% per year is supposed to address that incredible deficit. There is a registered employment agreement in place covering bus workers that has been ignored by bus management in Bus Éireann. I believe they are trying to bypass the industrial relations machinery of the State. The cack-handed attempt by the company management to bring this crisis to the Labour Court yesterday was refused by the court. This was after management had failed to participate in a Labour Court pay claim from staff just before Christmas. No doubt, reforms and changes may need to be made to work practices. No sector can avoid the need for ongoing modernisation but these changes have to be negotiated. Instead, management has been engaged in a public relations doomsday exercise to set an agenda for confrontation with the trade union movement. The reality is the National Transport Authority, NTA, licences are awarded to private operators in which there are no employment conditions attaching, in effect allowing a race to the bottom on terms and conditions for bus drivers. This crisis goes to the heart of what is driving economic inequality. Instead of lifting up all bus drivers to an even playing field, we have a bonfire of rights and conditions and a race to the bottom. I have no doubt the clerical and driver staff members of Bus Éireann would be willing to discuss proposals to ensure the company remains viable but they cannot do that with a gun to their head. They cannot do that if the entire pitch is tilted against them.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has removed himself from all of this. He is now a spectator and I am interested to know where he is now - most of the Cabinet is here - when two important Leaders' Questions are put on this issue to the Taoiseach. I want to ask the Taoiseach two brief questions. Does he support the current approach of management in Bus Éireann, a company that is owned entirely by the State? Would he support a sectoral employment order to cover the bus industry to ensure the terms and conditions of workers are protected and that there is an even playing field for all?

I thank Deputy Howlin. Few people in the House know as much about this as does the Deputy. He has had experience of the industrial relations machinery of the State being made available to many companies in the past. This is not the first occasion we have had some difficulties with Bus Éireann. The difficulties of the past have been ironed out on each occasion by using that machinery and by using the negotiation capacity that exists between management and trade unions.

It is true to say that 23 million public passengers used Bus Éireann in 2015. It is also true to say, as the Deputy pointed out, that many thousands of school children are brought either by Bus Éireann or by another provider, under contract, to their schools and home safely in the evening. As I said to Deputy Martin earlier, €35 million of a subvention, which represents an increase of 17%, was made available by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform this year. This is an issue of public policy in terms of attracting more people to use public services such as the public transport service. The central issue in respect of the Expressway service is one that needs to be dealt with because the commercial reality is that it is a loss-making area. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has pointed out that if there is a reconfiguration of the Expressway service, it stands ready to provide connectivity to rural areas that would lose that service were that to happen.

The Deputy made a few other points. As I said earlier, the chief executive, who is serving in an acting capacity, is before an Oireachtas inquiry now. Bus Éireann is preparing plans which it will present for discussion in the next number of weeks. The answer to this, as the Deputy is well aware, is to engage with the facilities of the State where these particular problems and confrontations can be discussed, negotiated and concluded.

My understanding is that the engagement with the Labour Court yesterday was about the requirements that have to be put in place in order that discussions can take place on it. It will not be sorted out in here by megaphone politics. This will have to be sorted out, as every other dispute is sorted out, around the table between the management and the unions or using the facilities of the State. I hope that machinery will be able to engage itself with the management and the unions in the interests of the company, the drivers, those who work in it and also the travelling public. Nobody wants to see this go wrong.

The Taoiseach launched an action plan on regional and rural development this week to much fanfare. He spoke of revitalising towns and villages across the country. At the same time another arm of government is putting the vital transport infrastructure that these rural communities need at risk. In a reply to a parliamentary question to my colleague last week, it was indicated that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has never met the Rural Transport Network which is amazing. Will the Taoiseach direct the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and the NTA to sit down with Bus Éireann and with the trade unions and bring this charade to an end, or is he content for another round of industrial unrest to undermine a vital national company and a vital resource for the communities across this country?

I agree that it is a vital national company. I commend the drivers and the workers for the service they have provided on a daily basis over the years. As I pointed out, more than 23 million members of the travelling public used Bus Éireann in 2015.

The increase in the public service obligation, PSO, for 2017 is 11% across PSO services generally. The Deputy knows as well as I do that the way these engagements and difficulties can be and have to be sorted out is by using the independent mechanisms of the State. Telling the Deputy something and giving directions for this, that or the other to be done is not the way to sort this out.

The Minister cannot be completely excluded.

Nobody wants to see this vital commercial company have to withdraw or for it to get into serious difficulties. The way that this can be sorted out is by using the Labour Court so the management and the unions can sit down, discuss their differences and hopefully come to a conclusion in everybody's interest. The central issue is the Expressway service which is losing money commercially and that must be addressed. The way it can be addressed between the management and the unions is by using the facilities of the State and the Minister, Deputy Ross, has expressed this on many occasions.

The Deputy referred to the programme launched in Ballymahon the other day for the revitalisation of 600 towns and villages across the country. The NTA is quite prepared and plays its part as an element of that-----

Is it not surprising that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport never met the Rural Transport Network?

He never met the Rural Transport Network.

-----but that does not impact at the moment on the Expressway services which go through sections of rural Ireland. We had support for the Deputy when he was a former Minister dealing with transport issues as well, as he will be well aware.