With your permission Sir, I wish to share my time with Deputy Austin Currie.
Adjournment Debate. - An Post Industrial Dispute.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
The postal dispute has escalated as a result of the suspension yesterday of a further 600 staff. With the news that the talks have broken down, we are discussing a matter of serious national concern. There are now 1,300 staff off the pay-roll and with the deafening silence of both the Department of Tourism, Transport and Communications and the Department of Labour I want to ask if anyone is serious about settling this dispute.
If somebody does not do something quickly the country will be faced with an all-out strike. Having spoken to both parties to the dispute I was delighted to learn there is a real and definite desire on both sides to have it settled. What they need is an input from either the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications or the Minister for Labour to help them bring the talks to a successful conclusion. My fear was that if both Ministers continued to sit on the ditch the talks would crumble, making it impossible to retrieve the progress already made. This has happened.
We have a responsibility to the people who are suffering immense inconvenience as a result of the postal dispute. Not everybody has a fax or can afford to use the services of a courier. Many recipients of social welfare payments are in extreme distress and are facing poverty. Businesses are also losing out. In general it is destroying the economy. In short, the Ministers must realise that the postal dispute is a nuisance and every possible effort should be made to resolve it.
The Minister should also realise that postal workers who are working are not receiving their wages or salaries, and the longer the dispute continues the higher the temperatures will rise and the more difficult it will be to reach a settlement. Whatever the rights or wrongs on either side, a genuine attempt must be made by the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications and the Minister for Labour to settle the dispute. Unfortunately, they may allow the goodwill that exists on both sides to be dissipated and because of a lack of intervention by either Minister the dispute might reach an impasse.
It is saddening to learn that the talks have broken down. The Minister should have ensured that neither party would leave the negotiating table without a settlement being reached but they were left on their own. This dispute will not go away. Somebody must solve it. It is the responsibility of both Ministers to do something positive to end the dispute.
I thank Deputy Ahearn for sharing her valuable time with me. Obviously I will be brief. It is a very serious situation that the talks have broken down within the last two hours or so. I had hoped that by the time we stood up here this evening some progress would have been made towards a settlement because the auguries looked good. There appeared to be a fair amount of common ground between the two sides. As I understand it, the union were prepared to accept the recruitment of temporary staff on a pro rata basis and the tribunal's recommendations on overtime. I am aware this is something about which the Minister and many people feel strongly. The union were prepared to accept a phased reduction in overtime. In relation to Sheriff Street, which has been a problem area for a long period, the union were prepared to accept that Dublin districts 1 and 2 be located at the new premises but, unfortunately, that has not been enough.
I cannot help suspecting that the reason it has not been enough is that the two parties did not show equal commitment and effort to reach an agreement. Be that as it may, I have not at any stage felt blame should be apportioned. Eventually a settlement will have to be reached and I hope it will be reached without undue hardship and, therefore, it is wrong to apportion blame. I would ask two things. The first is that no more suspensions follow. It would be a bad mistake if, as a result of the breakdown in these negotiations, suspensions were to take place tomorrow or within the next few days. Secondly, this is an opportune time for the Minister for Labour to intervene in this dispute. We all know that time is crucial. I am led to believe — and I hope these words are brought to his attention — that if the Minister for Labour were to intervene now he could do so with a fair chance of success. I hope he will follow that advice.
Tá mé buíoch den Teachta Ahearn as ucht deis a thabhairt dom labhairt ar an ócáid seo faoi gach atá ag tarlú in An Post faoi láthair.
This gives me an opportunity to set out the present position for the information of the House. The current dispute affecting the postal service commenced on 27 April last with the implementation, by An Post, of the independent tribunal's recommendations for the recruitment of temporary and part-time staff in the Dublin area to reduce overtime working. On 28 April I gave the House a detailed statement of the extent of An Post's financial problems and of the need for changes in the postal service to resolve those problems. In the course of that statement I expressed the view that the appropriate way to settle the postal dispute is to use fully the industrial relations machinery, including the available adjudication procedures, and that both sides should accept and implement the outcome of these procedures.
Postal staff continue to process and deliver social welfare payments and An Post's counter staff continue to disburse such payments. The Minister for Social Welfare has made special arrangements to facilitate social welfare recipients affected by the dispute and I am informed they are operating satisfactorily. I am seriously concerned about the disruption in mail services now taking place and I am keeping in close touch with the whole situation and in close touch with my colleague, the Minister for Labour.
The chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission has met both sides this week for discussions. Those discussions were adjourned today without arrangements for resumption. The chief executive is due to report back to the normal meeting of the Labour Relations Commission next week. I regret a solution has not been arrived at this week. As I said last week, the only way to resolve this problem is through negotiation or through adjudication and unless all parties are prepared to work at achieving a solution I fear there will be escalating losses to the company and the very future of the company and all their staff will be put in jeopardy.
Once again I appeal to all those involved to make a realistic attempt to negotiate the necessary changes, to restore the company to break even and I repeat, the Government are not prepared to subsidise a loss-making postal service.