Unions in CIÉ are to meet officials from the licensing section of the Department of Transport in a bid to resolve the row over the issuing of licences to private bus operators.
The National Bus and Rail Union, however, is to go ahead with its ballot for industrial action in Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.
The offer of talks with licensing officials was made by the Department yesterday during discussions at the Labour Relations Commission.
Unions are opposed to plans by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to hand over up to 25 per cent of the Dublin bus market to competition from private operators. They are also concerned about increasing competition on countrywide routes serviced by Bus Éireann.
They claim Mr Brennan is, in effect, pushing his reforms through without agreement by issuing licences to private operators while talks with the unions are continuing.
The Department, however, says it is obliged under law to deal with licence applications within a specified time frame.
Mr Brendan Hayes, vice-president of SIPTU, said unions would be able to test that assertion at their meeting with licensing officials, which would take place within the next couple of days.
In the meantime, SIPTU was not proposing industrial action.
"At the moment we are engaged in a talks process and we want to bring that to as speedy a conclusion as we possibly can." The picture would become clearer after the meeting with the Department's licensing section.
Mr Liam Tobin, general secretary of the NBRU, said his union would attend the meeting. "It's something we have been looking for for some time. One of the things we want to find out is how many licences have been issued?
"At present we have a situation where national and multinational companies can buy a licence privately, without competitive tendering, for €7.62 and convert it into an asset worth hundreds of thousands of euro in a matter of months," he said.
Mr Tobin said further talks with the Department would not take place until it had prepared a definitive response to unions' concerns on the future of Dublin Bus.
The chairman of the talks, Mr Kevin Foley of the LRC, was to contact the unions when that response was available, he said.
In the meantime, his union would proceed with its strike ballot, which could see public transport being disrupted in about a month.
Another CIÉ union also threatened industrial action yesterday over the continued issuing of private licences.
The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association said a meeting of its Irish committee would take place in the coming days, and it would not rule out balloting its members for action. Meanwhile, the Irish Aviation Authority is to hold a meeting tomorrow with the Aviation Technical Officers' Association, which is currently holding a strike ballot.
Its members monitor and maintain air traffic systems controlling Irish airspace. The ATOA claims the authority has unilaterally reduced senior engineering posts by two-thirds.
