Mr. Shay Cody:

On the issue of consolidation, the way the winds are blowing people are safer in having as much material as possible consolidated in their core pay. We will be as ambitious as possible, but there is another side to the negotiations and there will be other perspectives. It is welcome that the Minister has indicated it is a task we should set for ourselves.

On the issue of higher pay - I do not necessarily want to revisit the point unduly - Deputy Simon Harris identified a particular grade. It was my understanding the programme for Government included a cap on pay across the public service and that the Taoiseach and various others had had this measure applied to them. It was at the Cabinet table, not in the Croke Park agreement, that a decision was made to leave well enough alone for a particular category. I need to be absolutely clear about this. It was a political decision to revise the programme for Government. It is unfair that the Croke Park agreement and all the work put into it have been beaten over the head with this decision which was a political rather than an industrial relations decision.