Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Like all of us in this House, I am certain that the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, each of his party colleagues and the Green Party Deputies have received dozens of e-mails and phone calls from members of the public services who are the subject of the legislation we are debating and which is required to facilitate the second pay cut inflicted on those workers this year. That the proposed cuts would lead to so much anger, disappointment and despair should have come as no surprise given the one day strike which took place several weeks ago and the ongoing representations made by public sector workers and their unions in the run up to the widely predicted cuts which were announced here by the Minister, Deputy Lenihan, on budget day.

However, he chose to ignore all of this and we had the charade of an alleged Fianna Fáil backbench revolt over the proposals from the public sector trade unions, which in themselves would have entailed another steep cut in the earnings of public sector employees. The truth of the matter however, as the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh well knows, is that what we witnessed was not a popular uprising by old age pensioners, the unemployed and ordinary workers demanding that teachers, nurses, gardaí and those who work in Departments should have their wages cut again but, rather, a well-orchestrated campaign by business interests and the right wing pundits in the media.

I received several e-mails claiming to be from small business people here which in fact were sent by the Irish subsidiary of a major overseas brokerage firm. IBEC and ISME organised their members in what was an effective lobby. Fair play to them. That is the way politics works. However, as we know all too well from Fianna Fáil's history with big business in this country - we need look no further than the tent at the Galway races - it has a huge advantage when it comes to influencing the action those in power take. Some parties, and Fianna Fáil in particular, have been compromised by big business, something which did not happen today or yesterday. The old saying of "he who pays the piper calls the tune" springs to mind. One of the main themes in the e-mails I have received from teachers and others in my constituency and from every other county is the perception that those who are on low to medium wages are being saddled with the main blame for the current financial crisis and the main burden for its solution.

There are people in this building for whom the cuts this year mean that they are little better off than if they were claiming social welfare. Indeed there are people working in this building and in other branches of the public service who are earning a weekly wage that entitles them to family income supplement which makes a mockery of any pretence on the part of the Minister that he is taking on some protected well healed section of the community. What a pleasure it must have been last week for them to see the hangers-on of the Minister's party swanning around the Dáil bar and restaurant celebrating that the people guiding them around, and serving them pints and food and working for their Deputies were having their incomes slashed while some of those doing the swanning around are among those who have done very well indeed from the so-called Celtic tiger. By all appearances they are not suffering too greatly from its demise.

The financial crisis was not brought about by the staff in the Dáil bar or restaurant, or the ushers or secretarial staff but by the friends of the Minister's party who, through their greed and incompetence, have saddled this State with a massive debt that will be visited on the sons and daughters and maybe even the grandsons and granddaughters. They are being presented with the bill for the end of the great party to which none of them was invited.

It is sickening to listen to some business spokespeople and right-wing pundits who are seeking to give the impression that all of those public sector workers currently having their incomes slashed in an unprecedented way were living the high life over the past ten years or so and in doing so they created the current mess. Was it teachers, nurses, Dáil ushers or secretarial assistants who speculated on land banks and pushed up the prices of houses? Was it council workers who created the mortgage inflation? Was it the hospital cleaners who charged or rather demanded to be charged exorbitant rents for houses and apartments? Was it firemen who increased the prices for hotels, and food and drink even while workers in those sectors were receiving only modest increases or no increases at all? It was not. Their only part in all of that, in common with the vast majority of people in the State, was to have to pay a much bigger share of their income for housing and accommodation and just about everything else.

It is ironic then to listen to spokespeople for those sectors claiming that the attacks on the public service will somehow lead to economic recovery. I wonder have they pondered that there will be fewer people to overcharge now. Have they considered the certainty that their stupidity in reducing income will not help to sustain or create jobs? What was most telling was one business spokesperson last week who said that the budget would lead to a revival in overseas investment and that this would allow Irish business to piggyback on all of that. I use the word "telling" because it describes accurately enough much of what went on in the Celtic tiger years. The real economy was largely dominated by multinationals and this led to most of the real growth. Benefiting most from that and from the nominal increases in workers' wages were the type of people I have referred to who saw it as an opportunity to dip their beaks and extract a disproportionate share in rents and mortgages by increasing them whenever they felt like it.

In saying that I am not criticising the many genuine domestic enterprises which have sought to contribute to employment creation and the economy. It is no accident that they have been treated extremely badly by the banks in comparison with the incompetent speculators who have gifted us NAMA, and a potentially worse disaster down the road.

Another aspect of the assault on ordinary public sector workers has been the apparent popularity of this strategy among other sections of workers. Although I suspect - if for no other reason than that many private sector workers are married or otherwise related to low and middle-income public servants - that this does not reflect reality. However, any private sector worker inclined to celebrate the attack on teachers, nurses, firemen, gardaí, and people working in this building and Departments ought to beware because as sure as night follows day they will be next. The private sector has already seen cuts in wages and the undermining of jobs and conditions but the defeat, as it is regarded in business circles, of the unions on public sector pay will be followed by further attacks on workers' living standards.

Apart from the issues of fairness in all of this and that many people's lives will be made considerably worse, Deputy Morgan last week made other points as to why these cuts are a bad move. They will not encourage economic growth as they will take a large amount of money out of circulation. In saying that however, the Government is at least consistent as its entire strategy is negative and militates against any economic stimulus. Other countries have rejected that strategy and are showing signs of recovery.

The days when a Fianna Fáil leader could claim to be the leader of a party that represented the people of no property are long gone. The days when a Fianna Fáil leader can claim to be the leader of the people as Taoiseach may not be too far behind.

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