Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week when I addressed the Minister, Deputy Howlin, in the House I pointed out that women were being disproportionately affected by Croke Park II and that it was fitting that Croke Park II was being buried the same week as Margaret Thatcher was being buried. The Minister took exception to that. He appears to believe there are misconceptions in the public domain in terms of how damaging the Croke Park II proposals are for public sector workers. I want to outline how bad this so-called agreement would have been for workers, especially women, which illustrates the reason the proposals were so comprehensively rejected.

The 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance commissioned an assessment of the pay cuts proposed in Croke Park II, which provided numerous examples of the negative effect on front-line workers of increased working hours without additional pay, reduced overtime pay and allowances, and the freezing of increments.

A psychiatric nurse and a staff nurse, both on gross salaries of less than €50,000, would have seen reductions in their income of over 11%. A paramedic on a salary of €36,700 would have faced a reduction of nearly 10%. A care assistant on a gross salary of just over €40,000 would have seen a 9% reduction in income. That report contrasts those examples with the way a Senator on a gross salary of €65,600 would have been affected by Croke Park II. The Senator stood to lose 0.9% of income.

According to the equality audit commissioned by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the proposed loss of access to flexible working arrangements as staff progress into senior management positions would have disproportionately and negatively impacted on women. Women are already significantly under-represented at senior management levels in the public sector above the higher executive officer grade. The audit found that this proposal will limit opportunities for women and men with caring responsibilities to seek and secure promotion and that it will copper-fasten vertical gender segregation and gender inequality in the public sector.

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