Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

At that time the public service unions responded by indicating that they wished to develop their proposals. We very much welcome that and in that context the planned day of industrial action for today was postponed. The Government will consider any further proposals emerging from these discussions. I want to make it very clear that a basis for agreement will only exist if the scale of the reduction in the public service pay is sufficient, if it is clearly seen to be permanent in character and that any transitional arrangements do not impact negatively on services as assessed by the public service management.

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