Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. He would do himself a power of good if he, as Taoiseach and Head of Government, said he and the Governments he has served in got this wrong. I agree the structures of the public service have strangled initiative and strangled many of those who work above and beyond the call of duty. In respect of redeployment, which is critical, the Government task force recommended a common contract for public servants to enable redeployment to happen more quickly, so that people could be moved from Department to Department or section to section as their expertise or experience might require. Has that been a subject of discussion between the Government and the trade unions? Does the Taoiseach, as part of these discussions, intend to put on the table a proposal for a common contract to facilitate ease of movement of public servants?

Does the Taoiseach think it appropriate that any public servant should earn more than the Taoiseach of the day? Is this the Taoiseach's view on how rates of pay have increased at the higher levels of the public service and is this an issue in his view? The public have strong views on high levels of pay.

Can the Taoiseach provide the House with information as to the reduction in public service numbers as a result of the moratorium on recruitment? Can he provide information on the number of posts that have not been filled as a result of the moratorium? It is a crude instrument in many ways in that particularly critical posts may be left vacant and Ministers may lack the expert staff to provide information to them about questions which they may be required to answer. What has been the impact of the moratorium to date on public service recruitment?

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