Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for speaking on the amendments. As she knows, colleagues from Fórsa attended the previous two debates on the Bill.I acknowledge the Minister was good enough to speak to them on both occasions. While we welcome the two years in that amendment, it does not deal with the core issue. I have spoken to my colleagues in Fórsa almost on a daily basis in the past week. They would have been here today, were it not that this debate was only scheduled for today's sitting yesterday. However, I will read the concerns they have about what is happening into the record. This is correspondence several of us have received from a number of Garda civilian staff. I will quote it directly.

The proposed changes to my terms and conditions, which would come as part of this Bill are unacceptable to me and my colleagues, specifically relating to the proposed change of my Civil Servant status to that of a Public Servant ... As this Bill approached the Seanad, my colleagues and I across our expansive network reached out to multiple Senators on this matter to create awareness of our concerns and indeed to draw attention to the fact that no meaningful consultation or negotiation has taken place with us and our union, Fórsa, on this matter.

I will repeat that part, "no meaningful consultation or negotiation has taken place with us and our union, Fórsa, on this matter". That remains the case today. She continues:

Our efforts today culminated in a delegation of us as civil servants and union workplace representatives being in attendance in the Seanad when the Bill was introduced. At that time the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, committed to investigate this matter further and a commitment was given that negotiations would commence. I can categorically state that this has not progressed and despite commitments given and indeed recent union led representations made to our employer on this matter, no negotiations have taken place nor has a forum or framework been established to enable this to happen. This is despite all of our efforts and indeed all the commitments given to us...It is incredibly worrying that my Civil Service status, along with the terms and conditions and protections that are associated with that, can be changed by legislation without agreement or negotiation with our trade union.

Having spoken to Jim Mitchell, who represents Fórsa and who the Minister has met on a number of occasions, as recently as yesterday evening, I know he is absolutely clear that despite the welcome commitment the Minister gave that negotiations would commence, no such negotiations have commenced. That commitment was given a number of weeks ago and the union is more than perplexed. It is extremely frustrated and its members are extremely upset because this is a most reasonable request. The request is simply to start a negotiation. That is all they are asking for; yet what they have met from the Minister's Department in return is obfuscation and delays. I can tell the Minister right now, and she knows anyway, that no negotiations have commenced. A date has not even been given for negotiations to commence. The Minister gave a commitment that it would happen. I cannot for the life of me understand why it has not. We want to work with the Minister. She will be aware that Sinn Féin supports this Bill. I am a proud trade union member and a proud former trade union official. I cannot understand why the Minister has not agreed to start negotiations. The union has been waiting all year for this. Its members are extremely upset and frustrated. It has thousands of members across the State in all constituencies and areas and they are more than annoyed at this point in time.

The good news is that she can still resolve this in a direct exchange with me now, by simply saying that negotiations will begin and committing to give the union a date this week for when the negotiations will begin. Given that the union has been waiting all year and the commitment the Minister made to it five weeks ago, that is not an unreasonable request. I invite the Minister to do that.