Ross heckled by Athlone bus workers at cycleway opening

Transport Minister Shane Ross was heckled by Bus Eireann workers during a visit to officially open the newest stretch of the Mullingar to Athlone greenway at lunchtime today (Friday).

A group of more than 30 workers holding NBRU and SIPTU placards turned their backs on the Minister and local TD Kevin 'Boxer' Moran as they arrived on bicycles to formally open the greenway from Garrycastle to the Ballymahon Road in Athlone.

'The Minister has turned his back on the transport workers, so we're turning our backs on the Minister,' explained one Bus Eireann worker.

On this, the fifteenth day of the bus strike, workers chanted 'Ross out' and urged him to get involved in resolving the transport dispute.

'It's about time you started earning your wages. Go and do your job. It is your job to get involved, whether you like it or not,' one worker told him, to applause from the others.

Minister Ross reiterated that he would not get involved in an industrial relations dispute.

'Your problems are very important, and I completely sympathise with what you're saying, but also I don't want to see a situation where the company goes under, in which case there would be a lot of people out of jobs,' Minister Ross told the workers.

'I'm not allowed to put money into Expressway. I'm actually forbidden by law from doing that.'

The Minister said he was not privy to what was being said in the talks aimed at resolving the dispute in the Workplace Relations Commission.

'They're going to the Labour Court, I think, now, and I hope we all get a settlement which is satisfactory for everybody,' he said.

* For full report and photos from today's event, see next week's Westmeath Independent