Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is quite an amount of business on the Order Paper today. Before agreeing to it, I wish to ask the Tánaiste if any time will be provided for a statement to be made to the House by her, the Taoiseach or the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, on the talks currently under way with the public service trade unions. We seem to have a very muddled position taken by the Government. It seems to have been made worse over the course of the past day. This morning we had an extraordinary situation whereby the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, who was presumably acting as a proxy for his brother, was on radio contradicting the position which was set out by the Taoiseach in the House yesterday.

We do not know where the talks are going. We are less than a week from the budget. Both sides of the House accept there is a requirement to reduce the public service pay bill by €1.3 billion. We do not know where the Government is going with that. We should get some clarity on this today, and that clarity should be given in the House. I understand a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party has been convened for today, presumably to discuss this matter. However, it is an issue that needs to be set out in public. What arrangements are being made to allow for a statement to be made to the House and perhaps for some questions to be taken on the progress, or lack of it, being made on these talks? The Government needs to clarify its position. We seem to have two positions, one announced by the Taoiseach yesterday and a second announced by proxy on behalf of the Minister for Finance this morning.

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