Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Sunday, the Taoiseach took to the airwaves to threaten public sector workers with pay cuts. Last week, at the outset of negotiations on a successor to the Croke Park agreement, the Government warned of compulsory redundancies in the public sector. This is not the way to negotiate in good faith. The case for public sector reform is unanswerable and is accepted by those in the public and Civil Service. Equally, the case for finally tackling the excessive pay and pensions of a tiny minority at the top is now unanswerable. Ministers, special advisers and senior civil servants all need to have their pay cut. To add insult to injury, we have seen today reports of former taoisigh and former Ministers, many of whom presided over the economic collapse in this State, on lavish pensions.

The protection afforded to this class of person contrasts starkly with the plans of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to slash the pay and conditions of graduate nurses and midwifes. The Government is expecting these graduates to accept yellow pack jobs and greatly reduced pay rates within the health service. What happened to equal pay for equal work? The Minister has indicated that he intends to extend this yellow pack strategy scheme to other workers in the health service. Public sector reform will not be achieved by driving down wages for those on the bottom. In the course of the negotiations for a Croke Park agreement nua, will the Government defend pay equity? Will it defend equal pay for work of equal value? Will it finally deal with the glaring issue of the tiny minority within the public and Civil Service who are overpaid and over-pensioned?

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