Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

believes that:

the measures required to deal with the current economic crisis must be based on the principles of fairness and equity;

those who contributed most to the crisis should be required to contribute most to a solution and that people should be asked to contribute according to their ability to pay;

irresponsible lending practices by the banks and reckless speculation made a major contribution to the economic problems we are now facing and that the Government has failed to take required measures to remove senior bank executives and board members responsible for this and to adequately cap pay and remuneration packages; and

measures should be taken to end the practice whereby people living and conducting business in this country can avoid paying taxes by a phoney tax exile status and to end the various tax shelters and relief schemes that facilitate tax avoidance by wealthy individuals;

deplores the attempts to scapegoat public service workers and to create divisions between those who work in the public and private sectors;

regrets the manner in which the negotiations with the social partners were handled by the Government and particularly the failure of the Government to table specific proposals on public service pensions until the eleventh hour, leaving no time to reach agreement;

believes that the pension levy unilaterally announced by the Government is unfair in that it places an unacceptable burden on public servants on modest incomes, including those who are so poorly paid as to qualify for family income supplement;

notes that no account is taken of the differing arrangements for pension and social welfare contributions in the public sector and that anomalies in the way in which the levy is structured will mean that some public servants on low pay will lose a greater proportion of income than somebody on higher pay;

regards the decision to impose the levy on all income, including income which is not reckonable for pension purposes, to be fundamentally unjust;

recognises that public servants are willing to play their part in economic recovery and in the stabilisation of the public finances on a basis that is fair and equitable; and

therefore calls on the Government to suspend the introduction of legislation to impose the levy and to re-enter negotiations with the social partners with a view to reaching agreement on a fair and equitable set of proposals that would meet the adjustment of €2 billion already agreed between the Government and the social partners in the draft Framework for a Pact for Stabilisation, Social Solidarity and Economic Renewal.

I wish to share time with Deputies Shortall, Sherlock, Jan O'Sullivan and Morgan.

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