Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That is completely at variance with the facts. As the Deputy said, we met with the ICTU representatives on Tuesday morning. A proposal was put to the Government which I said would be considered by Cabinet. It was considered by Cabinet but unfortunately it did not meet the first requirement on the amount of savings that would be required. We reserved our position with regard to it. We notified the unions on that matter. They wanted to see if they could develop the proposal further and I was agreeable to that request because it is important to continue discussions. Some of the sectoral discussions took place right up to Friday morning. Some excellent work has been done which provides for a common positive vision as to how we can proceed with transforming public services. The immediate problem related to the fact that savings of the order of €1.3 billion would have been required, not only in 2010 but thereafter. Unfortunately this was not possible to confirm with the detail that would be required beyond 2010.

Issues were also raised with regard to the proposal for 12 days' unpaid leave. The Deputy will recall that the portrayal of this proposal in the public domain during the course of Wednesday on the basis of the strike not proceeding on Thursday, met with a very strong public reaction and certainly made the task of agreement infinitely more difficult. That question of unpaid leave was central to the consensus on the public sector trade unions side about offering pay reductions while maintaining pay rates. They offered an extended period during which that leave would be taken. However, the other problem, the second issue, related to uncertainty about how precisely the savings would be continued in 2012 and beyond. I agree there are various transformation measures which can be significant and which would not have generated savings of the order of €1 billion but we would have to discuss again next year what steps might be taken to help reduce the pay bill. It is unfortunate that an agreement was not possible which would command wide support especially in the context of other elements of the budget to be announced tomorrow and the three tests, which I set out on Wednesday morning last, were not met.

I recognise the level of engagement entered into by all sides and that genuine efforts were made. It was not possible to conclude an agreement, to the disappointment of many people, but the bottom line is there are strategic gains arising out of all those discussions in that there is an agreement, a realisation that savings of the order of €1.3 billion are required for 2010 and beyond and that there is a common positive vision about how we might transform public services in the future were we to be able to go back to those issues on another occasion.

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