Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The policy is not that of the Department of Education and Skills, to be fair, it is a general policy. Lansdowne Road is a collective agreement between Government and the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. It is voted for collectively, and applies to members of affiliate unions. Allowing acceptance or rejection of collective agreements by staff on an individual basis would undermine the collective approach taken to public service pay agreements to date and the system of free collective bargaining generally. It is an issue of fairly strong principle to defend the possibility of collective agreements being conducted.