Their only common ground might be a belief in the world being round - but Siptu president Jack O’Connor has pledged to approach any engagement with new Minister for Transport Shane Ross in a “constructive” manner.

“Shane Ross is a person that, put it this way, he and I would not agree on very much apart from agreeing that the world is round,” O’Connor told The Irish Times Business Podcast.

“And I don’t know that he holds the view that the world is round, given some of the positions that he’s taken - but I assume he does. Other than that, we wouldn’t agree on very much.”

Ross has lampooned unions over the years in his Sunday newspaper columns, and wrote last week that he and O’Connor “have a bit of history”.

In response, O’Connor, who leads the country’s biggest trade union, said: “I never, ever, ever read anything that Shane Ross writes.”

‘Right-wing Cabinet’

On the make-up of Enda Kenny’s new cabinet, he said: “It’s fair to say, and I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way ...that the Cabinet is the most right-wing since the Cumann na nGaedheal government left office in 1932.

“I don’t know that there is much potential for common ground between the tradition that I represent and they represent but ...all of us...have a responsibility to give the democratically elected government and the ministers ... a fair wind.”

The Siptu leader said he would not carry “grudges or agendas” into his engagements with Mr Ross or other Ministers.

“I don’t share much common ground with him or with them [the Cabinet] but I do intend for as long as I’m in office to approach our engagement...in a constructive way in the interest of our members and of working people generally.”

Mr O’Connor also said public sector pay restoration should be accelerated from its current 2018 timetable.

He said Brendan Howlin “would do a very good job” if appointed as Labour Party leader, and while he believes Alan Kelly is “committed” to Labour’s values, “he has some rough edges about him and I think he needs to work on that”.