Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

If there are Cabinet sub-committee meetings on public service reform it is difficult to understand how we can get so many different messages emanating from Ministers when they speak publically on public service reform, that is on the Croke Park agreement, compulsory redundancies and increments. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has a clear view about the Croke Park agreement. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport clearly has a strong views on the issues of compulsory redundancies and public sector increments. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, is keen to deal with premium rates and overtime and so on in the context of the health budget. Do these Ministers attend the Cabinet sub-committee on public service reform? Surely, the idea and objective of such a sub-committee is to lead to coherence from Government on such issues as public service reform and such that people can argue the toss. At least a clear message could then be sent to workers and the public that there is a sense of direction. We do not have such a sense of direction emanating from Government at the moment due to this incoherence. As far as I can see, the Cabinet sub-committee system is not adding value or authority to the work of the Government.

In many ways, it is certainly not preventing extraordinary incoherence and fundamental differences in policy that have emanated from various Ministers. Is it more about process than action? We are in an unprecedented crisis. It is no longer a matter of ticking boxes or committees going through a checklist. The interventions need to be more dramatic and incisive, particularly in regard to the unemployment situation.

It is striking that press conferences are arranged around the action plans for jobs and every small company that announces jobs but there was no press conference for the April review of the Department of Finance, which indicated that net employment would decrease by 40,000 jobs by 2015. There would be uproar if somebody announced the loss of 40,000 from the economy but there was no press conference. The information was buried in the Department's own review. Forget the politics; this is a serious issue which needs to be addressed. I do not think it is being addressed by the Cabinet committee or by the Government and the Oireachtas needs time to debate these issues in greater detail.

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