Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach in his opening reply to Deputy Kenny said that the Department of Finance was to be the lead Department to oversee public service reform. If this is the case, there will be no reform. There may be cuts in the public service budget but it will not be reformed and I will give my reasons for this view. The Department of Finance has too much to do at the moment. It is already trying to manage the biggest budget crisis we have seen. It is dealing with the banks and on top of this, the Government is going to have it undertaking reform of the public service. The Department of Finance may know something about the number of beans to be counted in different areas of the public service but with the greatest of respect, it knows very little about the delivery of services in health, local government, education and the many other areas where service has to be delivered. With the greatest of respect I say the Department of Finance is the Department that brought us the recession. It could not oversee the bank regulation, could not get the budgetary figures right and the Taoiseach is now proposing to put it in charge of reforming the public service. This will not work. I suggest that if the Taoiseach is serious about public service reform, the first thing he will do is establish a separate and dedicated Department of public service reform, headed by a Minister charged with delivering that reform, otherwise we are not going to have reform.

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the vision document to which he referred. He spoke at length about a vision for a better public service — a vision we would all share. I understand a vision document was presented to the trade unions at negotiations last Friday. I ask if this document will be placed in the Oireachtas Library so that we can all have access to it, rather than reading leaked portions of the document which periodically appear in the media. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that the issue of public service reform is something that is of concern not just to those who deliver public services and those who govern them but also to those who consume them.

With regard to the talks, I have been saying for some months I believed it was possible to achieve a reduction in the public service pay bill by a negotiated agreement with the public service unions. I now see that the talks taking place would appear to be aiming in that direction and this is to be welcomed. I also heard Mr. Peter McLoone's public statement yesterday that his union and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions were prepared to talk to Government about reductions in the public service pay bill. Will the Taoiseach inform the House if, prior to yesterday's strike the Government was aware that this was the trade union position and if the Government was aware of this position, why did it allow the strike to take place yesterday? Another strike is threatened for Thursday 3 December. The Taoiseach will have noted that yesterday's strike was a pretty united solid effort across the public sector and it will happen again on 3 December unless an agreement is concluded. Can the Taoiseach give the House any assurances that an agreement will be concluded before 3 December in order to avert a second strike?

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