Varadkar: I cannot 'in good conscience' give €36m subsidy to CIE
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said today that he is withholding €36m from CIE until it delivers a series of reforms.
Minister Varadkar said that the money is available to Irish Rail and Dublin Bus, but only if agreement is secured from unions on reforms.
Minister Varadkar said that he cannot "in good conscience" continue to pay taxpayers money to Irish Rail and Dublin Bus every year without these reforms.
He said that CIE and the bus unions in particular have to come to the table and there has been little progress so far.
"We're not going to allow the public transport system to collapse so the money is there to keep the public transport system going," he said.
"But what I can't have is the companies coming back every three or four months looking for a little bit more.
"This has to be part of a package and we have to have agreements from the bus unions, the rail unions have already agreed to a deal, and also we need to have a speeding up of the promised asset sales and new credit facilities for the companies."
