Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to comment on ongoing negotiations which have only just commenced. It would not help the successful outcome of those negotiations or accelerate their coming to a conclusion.

Young trainee accountants and solicitors and other people who have recently qualified from formal college have gone into the private sector at salaries that are considerably less than what prevailed previously. In some cases, entire firms of professionals, such as solicitors, have reduced their salaries, as has happened with the public sector. In some larger institutions, different trainees are at different rates of pay because of the time they entered the profession. This is not confined to the public service.

It is not fair, but I do not think we can we address it in the short term. I would expect, however, that in any subsequent major talks the trade union movement will have on its agenda the equalisation of pay grades between people doing the same job, because the principle of the same pay for the same job still prevails.

We had no discretion, given that the Croke Park agreement confirmed that there would be no further reductions in the salaries of existing public service employees.

All we could do was offer a reduced salary to new entrants. Difficult as that is, there are still nine applicants for every student training place in the country. The demand from young people coming out of secondary school to get into colleges of education is still remarkably high and I want it to remain so. The current situation is less than fully satisfactory.

See this speech in context