Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

To some extent what the Taoiseach is saying now is what the Labour Party has been saying for months. We have advocated that rather than unilaterally imposing pay cuts across the board in the public sector, there should be a negotiated reduction in the public service pay bill and that the opportunity of that negotiation should be availed of to achieve reforms. I am glad the discussion on all of this has moved into that territory and I hope it will succeed. However, while I never believed the Taoiseach was in a position to wave a wand to call off strikes, he was in a position to advance the negotiations in order that strikes could be averted. That clearly was not done in advance of yesterday. The Taoiseach allowed yesterday's strike to take place. It appeared he wanted it take to place for whatever reason. In any event, it took place and we are facing another strike on 3 December. Is the Taoiseach confident he can conclude an agreement by that date to avert the strike?

With regard to the wider issue, I again come back to the question of whether the Taoiseach is serious about achieving public service reform. Clearly the Government and the Department of Finance are intent on reducing the bill but if they are serious about reform, they will start at the top. If there is to be reform of the public service, a process that is likely to take place over a protracted period, there needs to be a dedicated Department. The first reform that should take place is a reform at the top in order that a Department is dedicated to public service reform, as was the case for a period in the past.

The Taoiseach rightly said there will be complex issues such as redeployment. He mentioned the question of civil servants being redeployed to different sectors and agencies, which begs the questions as to whether there will be a redeployment process in reverse into the Civil Service. A range of organisational issues will require a separate Department with a separate ministerial head rather than putting it all into a Department that is overstretched as it is.

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