CMAT, Roy Keane, Shane Lowry and Kingfishr make guest appearances as Patrick Kielty hosts his third Late Late Toy Show on RTÉ
Search
06 Dec 2025
Search
06 Dec 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
A union has demanded an inquiry after reports the newly-nationalised ScotRail was still paying its former operating company to run some support services.
TSSA called for the independent inquiry on Monday after reports that Dutch transport firm Abellio, which used to operate railways north of the border, will be running some services for the next three years, a move the union said would see the company earn millions.
Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary, said: “Three months since the end of their contract, failed franchiser Abellio are still making money from Scottish taxpayers. This is a disgrace.”
In December 2019 it was announced Abellio would be stripped of its contract to run ScotRail and earlier this year the service entered public ownership.
However, the union said services including a customer helpline, parts of ScotRail’s payroll department, rail replacement buses and taxis, and the management of station tenancies are still being run by the former operator.
Mr Cortes said: “The Scottish Government have had more than two years to ensure that all Abellio’s contracts were ended at the same time.
“It is astonishing that a company that served Scottish passengers so badly are allowed to keep raking in the cash from the public purse.
“Enough is enough. I am demanding that an independent inquiry be set up into how Abellio have continued to. Scottish taxpayers deserve to know who is siphoning their money and why.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We will provide an update to Parliament shortly on this matter.
“However it should be noted that just four of nearly 200 contracts were carried over by Abellio as they were critical to maintain ScotRail services from day one of services being handed over to public ownership.
“Three out of four of those contracts have break points in the first year to allow other competitive alternatives to be identified.
“The fourth contract, crucially, secures the jobs of workers at the ScotRail Services Centre in Glasgow.”
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
