TD claims Transport Minister is simply watching Bus Éireann 'head towards insolvency'
There have been some "proper tulips" among the last 17 Transport Ministers but none of them brought Bus Éireann to the brink of insolvency, an Oireachtas Committee has heard.
Transport Minister Shane Ross has repeated that it would be "absolutely wrong" of him to intervene in the "nitty gritty" of the Bus Éireann dispute, .
Commuters face chaos from Monday as Bus Éireann workers stage an all-out and indefinite strike.
Appearing before the Transport Committee Mr Ross said: "I have consistently said I won't intervene directly but I have urged them to come to the table, which they did last week."
However, AAA-PBP TD Mick Barry claimed Mr Ross would become "the first sole shareholder possibly in history to watch his company head towards insolvency, heading over a cliff, all the while proclaiming that there nothing you can do".
Naming the 17 Ministers for Transport since Bus Éireann was founded in 1987, Mr Barry said: "In my view there were some proper tulips in that group".
But the Cork North-Central TD added that none of them had led the bus company to the edge of insolvency.
"It's happening on your watch Minister and where is the urgency?" he asked.
Separately Labour leader Brendan Howlin heavily criticised the Transport Minister in the Dáil for failing to tackle the Bus Eireann dispute, saying he wants a ministerial title without doing the work involved.
Accusing him of "waiting for a solution to fall from the sky", Mr Howlin said if Mr Ross will not act, Cabinet colleagues should act "to prevent the destruction of a public company".
Responding, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said while "it is true a solution will not drop out of the sky", an intervention from Mr Ross "is not what's needed yet here".
