Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

During Priority Questions today, I outlined to the House the current position on the effort to find an agreed way forward on negotiating a public pay position that would see a reduction in the public pay bill. That is ongoing and we have continued to work towards this. We have sat down with the public sector unions to examine what alternatives may exist to allow us to achieve this objective, apart from considering exclusively the cutting of pay. It would be remiss of any employer, most of all the State, not to do so. It would be remiss of the State not to discuss with employee representatives, over the coming days, what progress can be made in this area, without prejudice on either side, so as to enable people to consider all the various options and costings that need to be borne in mind. This process is taking place.

With regard to Deputy Gilmore's statement that there is no option but to hurtle headlong into confrontation, no one is seeking confrontation. All of us are seeking to communicate the seriousness of the situation in which the country finds itself. Anger is not a policy and does not provide a panacea. Everybody understands people's disappointment over the sharp change in our economic fortunes and the fact that people have lost jobs. Every public representative in this House is continually meeting constituents who feel this way. However, the issue is that the world has changed and we are in different circumstances, to which we must respond.

The Government has simply been outlining the fact that it does not have a policy to impose hardship, pain or difficulty, but to confirm that the current circumstances are not sustainable. In the interest of protecting people to the greatest extent possible, taking action now is unavoidable. This action must be taken in addition to the action that has been taken heretofore. The basis for doing this is to ensure that we make an adjustment that will effect recovery more quickly than it would be effected if we prolonged our approach over what could well be a prolonged period of stagnation rather than one characterised by a quick return to growth, as we all desire. In that respect, all of us, including all social partners and political parties, have the same objective. When people were asked about it in the media and elsewhere they accepted that there was a need for this level of adjustment, which is about stabilising the rising deficit situation for next year. It is not a question of Government seeking to impose unnecessary hardships. It is about Government seeking to avoid by way of inactivity the imposition of even greater hardships on the more vulnerable people in our community were action not to be taken.

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