Ahern highlights concern over shipping dilemma

An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has repeated his concern that the Irish Ferries dispute could cause serious damage to industrial relations and again asked the company to abide by the Labour Court recommendations.

He said he was very concerned about the damage being done by the dispute. He stated that he could understand why companies wanted to restructure but said that this was a “very good case study of upsetting everybody”.
“The company are well aware of my view "I’ve said it to the senior management and to the investors, and Minister of State Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher pointed it out to them during the week but the company decided to escalate things,” he said.

Mr Ahern said he was glad that Irish employers seemed to be leaning towards the Government view and that the Government had worked hard to improve industrial relations in Ireland.

“Last year we lost 20,000 days to industrial disputes. Back in the 90s, we used to lose 100,000 days. In the 80s we used to lose 300,000 days and in the 1970s we used to lose 400,000 days, but we’ve reversed all that around,” he said.