Dublin Bus possibly in trouble? Implications for Irish Rail?

[ThomasJ]

. ST Biz: Transport department hires Deloitte to advise on possible liquidation or examinership of Dublin Bus. (Plenty of room on top, folks)

https://twitter.com/FrankSunTimes/status/391674610124468224

Just seen this tweet from the editor of the Sunday times. Will be interesting to have a read of this in the morning and see what angle they are coming from.

But should we be worried about this from a point of view of Irish rail? They are sister companies after all.

[Mark Gleeson]

Dublin Bus has been living on borrowed time due the industrial relations issues blocking further cost savings.

Its final chance

[Jamie2k9]

Its final chance

I'm sure the taxpayer will pick up the bailout bill if required.

[Mark Gleeson]

Not this time

If it comes to it the company will be liquidated/put into examinership, state will transfer ownership of all buses and property to the NTA (all recent buses are NTA owned anyway) and the service will operate under the stand in cause by the NTA until it can be tendered out.

Sure we will have an all out strike in the CIE group but it won't last long as protective notice and statutory redundancy is put forward as the exit solution

[ThomasJ]

. The Department of Transport has retained Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, to advise it on a possible liquidation of Dublin Bus.

Strategic advice was commissioned from Deloitte in recent weeks on the options to put Dublin Bus in liquidation or examinership, according to well-placed sources.

The move was part of contingency planning for the possibility of a Dublin Bus drivers’ strike or failure to reach a satisfactory conclusion to costcutting negotiations.

The Department of Transport declined to comment this weekend. Leo Varadkar, the transport minister, and Alan Kelly, minister for state, said in a joint statement last week “no realistic alternatives exist” for Dublin Bus if workers do not support the recommendations that have been made in a new study by Noel Dowling, a former Siptu official, and Ultan Courtney of Courtney HR.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/article1329477.ece (subscription required to view full article)