Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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It is very hard to stop intellectual loss. I have done my best. With free movement of people, I am afraid my best efforts have not been successful on all occasions to hold on to the most valuable people. We have not been able to choose who should leave. People's pensions are related to pay and because we reduced pay there was a cut-off date that would apply to reducing pensions. People who were coming close to retirement chose to go early and they have not been replaced. Most of the people who migrated from the public service were within a couple of years of retirement in any event. We have lost others because we have squeezed pay. They will be paid a great deal more elsewhere. I am very conscious that we will need to debate the retention of the skill sets at the top of the Civil Service and the public service in a recovering economy. We will need to have a rational debate on levels of pay in a recovering economy for those with skill sets that are in demand.

I have said that I would like to get back to performance related pay, but we will not be able to do that this side of the end of the Haddington Road agreement. However, we should begin to talk about that.