Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach referred to the transitional agreement which the social partners negotiated last September. Is that agreement not now in tatters? The Construction Industry Federation said that it would not partake in it. IBEC, which ratified it, announced recently that it will not honour its pay terms. Last week in the House the Taoiseach effectively said the same, that in respect of employees in the public service the pay terms of that agreement cannot be honoured. A string of industry representative bodies covered by the joint labour committees have indicated they are having difficulty paying the terms of the legally enforceable employment regulation orders in their industries. Since the agreement was negotiated the Taoiseach announced a budget which imposed an income levy, or tax on incomes, a reduction in a variety of tax reliefs applying to pay as you earn, PAYE, workers and the introduction of, or increase in, several levies and charges. In addition, he announced last week a 7.5% average so-called pension levy on public service employees which is in effect a pay cut for those employees.

While there is much lip service being paid to the concept, principle and desirability of social partnership, the reality is that the agreement at the heart of the social partnership process is now in tatters. There is little or no prospect of the pay elements of that agreement ever being implemented.

See this speech in context