Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

I would like to make a couple of final comments. On the issue of apprenticeships, my point was that we have unfilled vacancies at all skill levels, some of which are in the mid-scale technical area. That would not be an unfilled apprenticeship as such.

I would like to return to some points made earlier by Deputy Kyne on the property tax. Our concern is that if this is done through the payroll system it will become a de facto tax on work and will be a further disincentive for someone who is out of work to seek a job because they will see this as a tax only paid by workers. It is important that if that model is used there are not widespread exemptions. It may be possible to look at deferral models but widespread exemptions would mean this would essentially be a tax paid by workers. That would be very damaging.

In terms of the social welfare cards, I agree that we do not want to return to the butter voucher days. That is the reason we would have focused on the universal scheme as a good place to roll out something like this, in particular in the case of child benefit, the budget for which is well over €2 billion. It is an awful lot money, which we could spend better in terms of getting at need and impacting on the economy.

On the issue of the Croke Park agreement, one of our concerns, particularly over the past two budgets, has been cuts to many services without sufficient delivery of efficiencies. The Croke Park agreement has many success stories. Unfortunately, given the state of our public finances much more needs to be done. It was sensible to have a framework. It is hoped that the Croke Park agreement or similar framework could continue to deliver the savings that are needed.

On the specific issue of public sector pay, we remain baffled that pay increases in the public sector continue to be made at a time when the country is broke. In the face of severe and, in many cases, socially divisive cuts pay increases continue to be made by way of increment. We believe this is an unsustainable position. In the region of €200 million can be saved. From an equity point of view if nothing else, the Government needs to address this issue.