Expressway under threat (Photo: Bus Éireann)

Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that the announcement today (Wednesday) that Expressway is to be separated from Bus Éireann services is an notice of intention to privatise the service and must be vehemently resisted by bus workers and commuters alike

The Cork City councillor said there was no logical reason for separating Expressway from Bus Éireann, it was a purely ideological decision and today’s announcement is a deliberate taunt at Bus Éireann workers seeking a long overdue pay claim.

Cllr Tynan said, “All of this is part of an agenda to dissect the CIE group of companies and make them easier to privatise.  This and the process of introducing so-called competition has already been progressed rapidly in the Dublin region and now Expressway is being lopped off from Bus Éireann to make it easier to privatise.  It must not be allowed happen”, he said.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that the timing of today’s announcement “stinks to high heaven” and is a calculated affront to Bus Éireann workers on the very day they escalated their long-standing pay claim.  “Management at the CIE group from Dublin Bus and Irish Rail and Bus Éireann is grossly dysfunctional.  It has an utterly confrontational style and is more interested in privatising the service than running it properly. Meanwhile we have Minister Shane Ross emulating the Emperor Nero with his complete failure to take responsibility for a company of which he is sole shareholder on behalf of the people”.