Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In the matter of secondary legislation, what is the position regarding the commencement order for the emergency legislation providing for reductions in civil and public service pay? The leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, raised this matter with the Taoiseach yesterday. We cannot find a commencement order in Iris Oifigiúil or the Oireachtas Library. The Taoiseach promised to indicate whether the order was made for the deductions in Civil Service salaries. If it has been made, why has it not yet been published?

In the course of the debate on the Bill the Labour Party pointed out that, as drafted, the legislation would apply to a wide range of non-governmental organisations, voluntary organisations and organisations funded by the Health Service Executive, including many community organisations, the Red Cross and Leader programmes. The Government specifically introduced an amendment to restrict the measure to public servants who were paying the pension levy. The HSE is issuing a series of notifications to grant aided and voluntary organisations ordering them from 1 January to reduce salary payments to staff in line with the Government's Bill. The HSE letter states that the reductions in salary will also apply to staff in grant aided agencies which are not specifically included in the legislation. The Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach assured us-----

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