Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

People who are well qualified in this area are members of that review body. They might know a little bit more about it than the Deputy, although he might be surprised to hear that. They were in a position to make comparisons which stack up in terms of the process and methodology. That is the situation.

We know all the pompous arguments made thereafter and the political hay that was sought to be made on the head of it. The fact is that if one wants to avoid anomalies or a situation where we allow public sector pay to trail way behind comparable positions in the private sector — I am not talking about the upper echelons which are at a rate of pay that is way beyond my comprehension but people who are in comparable positions — one needs to find a means by which one has some method of assessment and evaluation.

That is the wider policy issue. As I said when I became Taoiseach, I believe this is a matter that needed to be considered in the context of upcoming pay talks, the question of social partnership and its demonstrable effect. In view of the deteriorating situation in the public finances, the Government made this decision, felt it was timely to make it in the context of having received the Exchequer returns and was making decisions in any event in respect of wider expenditure issues, which was the right thing to do. It is also timely given that we have now finally come to the point where perhaps the pay discussions element of the social partnership talks will probably get under way this week.

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