I ask all leaders, their representatives and the Taoiseach please to observe the three-minute time limit as I dislike interfering.

We are now in the 12th day of the nationwide Bus Éireann dispute. People are extremely frustrated, annoyed and angry by the lack of activity at Government level to resolve this dispute. The simple refrain across Ireland is that if this dispute was in Dublin, it would have been resolved a long time ago. That is the general sense in regional cities, rural towns and across the countryside and one which we encounter all the time. There is massive disruption. Many businesses are reporting a significant decline in footfall and business activity in the towns and cities affected. Some 2,500 staff are also very worried about their position, notwithstanding the 110,000 people who use Bus Éireann services which are no longer available to them.

We have insisted from the beginning that there are policy dimensions to this issue which the Government refuses to acknowledge. The Minister has stated, for example, that one cannot have cross-subsidisation of the Expressway services from public service obligation, PSO, funding. That is not true.

The NTA can through the reasonable profit mechanism, which is there and which is allowed under EU regulations, facilitate transfers under that facility to the bus companies. It is interesting that under that arrangement Dublin Bus received €4.5 million last year while Bus Éireann received €400,000.

The Dublin-rural issue is evident again when comparing how Dublin Bus is funded under the PSO and how Bus Éireann is funded. Bus Éireann is not getting its fair share and is not getting a reasonable deal. The same applies to free travel. Bus Éireann recoups approximately €4.70 per passenger availing of free travel on the Expressway service while the average fare is €11.74. There has been a significant reduction in the free travel subsidy since 2010. The reasonable profit mechanism might sound complex as a formula but the bottom line is Bus Éireann gets a lower subsidy per passenger than Dublin Bus under the PSO operation as well. Whatever way you look at this, rural and regional Ireland is not getting its fair share. Bus Éireann is an indispensable part of the transport infrastructure of rural Ireland and of the towns and cities outside Dublin. That sense of prioritisation is not manifest in the Government's response to this crisis.

From the outset the company has insisted on preconditions before the unions enter into WRC talks, which is unacceptable. The talks should be without precondition but they should be assisted. Why will the Government not make an intervention on the policy front that would create the background, which would facilitate a resolution of this dispute at the WRC? The Government and the NTA have options open to them if they see fit to use them but so far the Government has been determined to avoid any consideration of legitimate policy issues that could help here.

This is the 12th day of an all-out strike at Bus Éireann and it has discommoded hundreds of thousands of people. I condemn the wildcat strike which took place unofficially last week and which brought this city and so many other places, as well hundreds of thousands of people, to a standstill. The Deputy mentioned that this would have been sorted out long ago if it was in Dublin, drawing an analogy that the country is being treated differently from other areas. The Minister for Tourism, Transport and Sport has intervened in respect of policy decisions in so far as the PSO is concerned and his colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills has been looking at the question of the school transport system while the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has been looking at the question of rural transport take-up of any changes that might occur to the Expressway service. The Deputy said it is possible to cross-subsidise the service; my information is different. Subvention is only provided for PSO services and it cannot, under law, be provided for commercial services such as the Expressway service. The Deputy seems to have a different view on that and that is something I will check.

I hope the unions and management get together with the WRC. As the Deputy mentioned whatever way you look at it - and whatever way you look at it, the Deputy is correct - there is a strike on here and the only way to settle that is around the table between unions and management. They have both agreed there are issues that need to be dealt with and the company needs to reform how it goes about its business to address the inefficiencies that exist. The place to settle those issues is not on the airwaves; it is around the table assisted by the WRC.

The Minister has been more than encouraging that unions and management would get together on this matter. The only parties that can agree a fair and acceptable deal to sort this out and have Bus Éireann continue to do the job it has done for many years are those in management and in unions. Nobody else can do that deal for them and no amount of taxpayer's money can solve the inefficiencies that both management and unions agree exist within the company. They both want to talk about them and the opportunity is available through the WRC to settle this.

On matters of policy, the Minister has been active. On matters of encouraging both sides, unions and management, to get back to talks at the WRC, I hope an invitation to resume those talks will be extended to them quickly and that people will understand that realistic negotiations between management and unions are required to solve these internal issues.

The WRC and the LRC are ready to assist, as they played a leading role in dealing with previous industrial relations within the CIE group. The biggest impact is on Bus Éireann's PSO network. Those who rely on those services have little alternative public transport options. The impact is lessened on the loss-making Expressway network as there are numerous competitors providing bus services in addition to the rail network. It is an issue that can only be sorted out at the WRC. I hope an invitation is extended to both union and management again quickly to do that.

Since 2016, the NTA, under EU regulations, has had to pay a reasonable profit on PSO services to CIE companies. Where a reasonable profit is paid to a director or operator, it is a matter for that company to decide how it wishes to apply these funds. It goes through all the possible applications of reasonable profit. No one is arguing that Bus Éireann is not very successful at discharging its PSO service obligations because it is. One of the anomalies that has arisen is with regard to the amount paid to the two semi-State bus companies. Why is Bus Éireann being paid so little in contrast to Dublin Bus? In 2016, Bus Éireann was only paid €400,000 in reasonable profit while Dublin Bus was paid €4.5 million. That is 11 times more than Bus Éireann. That is despite the fact that Bus Éireann is paid a lower subsidy per passenger than Dublin Bus for PSO services. If the Government was serious about this and committed to it, there are ways and means of contributing to its resolution, not by saying it is entirely the workers of the company who have to bear the brunt of all of the restructuring, which is what has happened to date. People are facing 30% cuts in their take home pay. That is the Government position.

The company is fortified by the position taken by the Government and the Minister, which is a race to a bottom in terms of wages. It is a savage cut and a disproportionate burden on the workers in terms of the restructuring and the transport policy dimensions which not only involve what I have just spoken about but also the free travel issue. The company has lost a lot since 2010 in terms of the subsidy it used to enjoy per free travel passenger. The Taoiseach has an obligation for the Government to make sure this is resolved fairly quickly. What I said to the Taoiseach at the outset is not my opinion. It is the opinion of the people across the country that if this was in Dublin it would have been resolved a long time ago. That is what the people are saying across the regions.

It cannot be one way only. If unions and management agree there are inefficiencies within the service that need to be sorted out then it cannot be that the workers bear the brunt of this only. How could that be? If unions and workers agree there are issues to be sorted out and dealt with then the place to do that is at the WRC. PSO funding for transport services increased by 11% this year. Last year it increased by 13%. Bus Éireann received a 21% increase in its PSO funding in 2016. In 2017, almost €263 million will be provided to fund our PSO services across bus and rail. Some commentary has suggested it is only rural bus services that are under attack.

It is attacking bus services in Dublin as well.

In fact, the Government is expanding the public bus service in rural Ireland through increasing the amount of PSO funding to Bus Éireann and increasing the funding through the rural transport programme. The Deputy is well aware of that. Taken together, funding for both programmes has increased by €28 million in 2017 compared to last year. Total funding for both PSO and rural transport will amount to approximately €277 million this year.

In respect of the free travel scheme, the Minister, Deputy Ross, and the Minister for Social Protection have instructed their officials to report back to them very shortly on this matter. The Minister, Deputy Ross, has publicly stated that he expects ministerial level discussions will resolve that particular issue very satisfactorily. Policy, the PSO, rural transport and the free travel scheme are matters the Minister has been very active on-----

He is the worst Minister in the Cabinet and that is saying something.

-----and has encouraged the WRC to invite both sides back to the talks again.