Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

They were necessitated by a financial emergency because we could not continue to pay that volume of money and maintain public services at the front line. This was the trade-off I negotiated with the public sector unions.

I am conscious, and the advice I have from the Attorney General is, that FEMPI legislation is not a permanent feature. It is predicated on there being an emergency axiomatically, and I must make this determination and report to the House annually underpinning it. Rather than simply sailing to the day when demonstrably an emergency no longer exists - God hasten that day - and have the entire underpinning of these reductions and pay sustainability undermined, I propose to open discussions. I have stated that once I receive the third quarter figures I will begin the process of discussing with the public sector unions their priorities, because there are a number of subsets in the issue. I want to maintain, and I have indicated this in the questions I answered this morning, the productivity gains we have achieved. I do not want to undermine them, and issues such as reformed sick pay are now permanent features of the Civil Service code. I want as far as practicable to give the best support to the most vulnerable and the lowest paid, but I want to engage with the unions on their priorities. It is my intention, if at all possible, to have an agreement that can be balloted by the public sector unions before we get into the final phase of budgeting, which will be September, so that when I present the budget in October we will have clear understanding of the amount of money to be paid, perhaps on a multiannual basis. I do not want to show too many cards, but as the Deputy knows, the budget horizon is now on a three year multiannual basis.