Irish Rail say the planned strikes at the company will see the company face insolvency and will damage customer loyalty and affect hundreds of thousands of regular commuters.

SIPTU and the NBRU have extended their work stoppages from four days to five.

Strike action will now be carried out on August 24th and 25th - as well as on the 7th, 8th and 21st of September - dates that include the All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals in an ongoing dispute over pay-cuts.

Barry Kenny from Irish Rail says the action could lead to insolvency: “There’s obviously going to be GAA fixtures, there’s going to be our regular customers that will be travelling across the country at weekends. It’s also going to affect two Mondays, which will affect our regular commuters as well.

“Which will damage customer loyalty again at a time when our business is starting to grow again and all that does is widen the financial gap which has to be filled and our trade unions recognise and accept the company is going to face insolvency.”