The Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, has told RTE News that the two-day unofficial strike which crippled rail services across the country gives the public service a bad name and should not be repeated.
He said he was glad that the train drivers have returned to work and the new trains would come on stream by next Monday. But he said industrial relations worked both ways and he hoped any new social partnership agreement would give a clear commitment not to see a repeat of the strike.
Earlier, the Minister told a conference on infrastructure that, in the context of the current pay talks, we could pay ourselves only what productivity allowed if we were to maintain competitiveness. 'We cannot pay ourselves wage increases based also on our inflation rate where this is out of line with our competitors,' he said.
Mr Cowen said that if we priced ourselves out of international markets, the inevitable result would be the loss of jobs, which would mean fewer resources available to the Government for capital investment.
