Vol. 509 No. 4
122 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the situation in relation to the DART service to Greystones; and when this service will be in operation in view of the fact that it was due to commence at the end of July 1999. [20726/99]
The infrastructure work on the DART extension to Greystones was completed earlier this year and a partial service was originally planned to commence in late summer.
However, the introduction of this service has been delayed due to ongoing industrial relations issues. The Labour Court issued an interim recommendation urging the unions to lift an embargo on the training of newly recruited drivers and the testing of the line while the court was considering the substantive issues. Subsequently the Labour Court issued its final recommendation on 3 August and this proposed an £8,000ex gratia lump sum payment to serving DART drivers in full and final settlement of all issues before the court. Neither recommendation was accepted by the drivers. Subsequent discussions between unions and management have not managed to find a solution and claims have since been put forward on behalf of other groups in Iarnród Éireann.
Until the industrial relations issues have been resolved it will not be possible to give an estimated start-up date for the Greystones DART service. However, Iarnród Éireann has informed me that once the current dispute is settled it will take approximately six weeks to test the line before introducing a partial service.
