Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Labour Party has already welcomed the Taoiseach's rather belated decision to write to the unions inviting them to re-enter talks with Government. However, would the Taoiseach acknowledge that it is not acceptable for Government to arbitrarily breach an agreement that it had freely entered into only a few months earlier? In particular, does the Taoiseach understand the anger of many ordinary public servants — teachers, nurses and gardaí — in respect of the arbitrary way the pension levy was imposed at the 11th hour in the talks compared to what they see as the treatment of the chief executive of Irish Nationwide, Mr. Fingleton in terms of his extraordinary bonus, his even more extraordinary pension and the fact that one quarter of that pension, which could be as much as €5 million, will be paid to him entirely tax free? Also, we had the case of Mr. McCaughey and two other people who made very large capital profits on the sale of their business. They sent their wives, perfectly legitimately, offshore to Italy. Who would not like to go to San Remo in Italy for 183 days and immerse oneself in Italian culture? We would all like to spend 183 days in San Remo at the end of which, instead of having to pay the cost of a sojourn abroad in Italy, we would make a handy €5 million profit. Does the Taoiseach understand that ordinary civil servants who give fantastic service to this country are understandably angry that there is, as it were, one treatment for them, which is the imposition of a severe levy, and another for others? The details of the levy are unfair in that in some cases people on lower income are paying more levy than people at the top echelons, particularly the top administrators in the public service. Does the Taoiseach acknowledge that that is an enormous difficulty? Does he propose to address that when he goes back into talks?

Also, does the Taoiseach have a timeframe for when the talks will recommence? Is there a deadline? Is he having discussions about discussions? The unions have laid out their stall, indicating that they want a three-year moratorium on home repossessions and the use of mediation instead of the courts. They have also indicated that pension funds which might be suffering solvency problems should be examined in the context of the National Pensions Reserve Fund. The unions have pointed out that the National Pensions Reserve Fund is being allocated to rescuing the banks but the Government has no plan to address pension funds such as that in Waterford Crystal or in other companies which have gone into liquidation and which may have solvency difficulties.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government must give a strong commitment on fairness, where people in the public service, particularly teachers and nurses and the like, get a fair deal? We all know these are difficult times, but measures must be applied fairly. The Fingleton and McCaughey examples are like a bone in the throat for many public servants when they compare such treatment to their own.

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