Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We negotiated already in the area of pay restraint on increments. I think the Committee of Public Accounts had a look at increments as well. I went through a year of being beaten up by many in this House saying that I was giving allowances and increments and pay increases when people were suffering grievously. I did not hear Deputy Boyd Barrett lend his support at the time. Obviously, increments are part of pay. I have to deal with pay in the totality of money I have available. Bluntly, when I mention the word discipline, I mean discipline in the way we negotiate. I must have discipline in delivering the trade union agreement that I negotiate and the unions have to deliver their side of the bargain. Some people may say they are opting out of any collective agreement because it does not affect them; they want all the pay restoration elements and the good parts of it yet will not do anything they do not like. Wherever that applies we need to have a structure in place that ensures a collective agreement can apply so that people who negotiate in good faith get what they negotiated.