Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the proposed agreement on public service pay with the Minister in the House. This is the first opportunity we have had to do so since the proposed agreement was announced earlier in the week. The Minister should agree that there is a lack of fairness in the proposals as they stand. There is nothing in the proposals about protecting all public services, especially front-line services, for the people. The document is rather light on reform. There is nothing in it about protecting emergency and 24 hour services needed by people on weekends. In particular it is most unfair that low paid workers who work weekends including people in the health service, whether nurses, nurses aides, or cleaning and catering staff in our hospitals, gardaí, firemen and prison officers are facing a cut of up to 8%.

The Minister avoided telling us the level of savings to be achieved. He did not mention a single figure. I think he is speaking about €1 billion over three years but some people thought it would be €1 billion per annum to 2015. He wants to save approximately €350 million per annum, which is 2% of the public sector pay and pensions bill of €17 billion. To achieve that 2% cut he will make certain weekend workers sacrifice up to 8% of their pay.

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