Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Chair might well say this is Question Time, but Deputy Mary Lou McDonald has never been interested in answers, just in back of the lorry speeches denying the realities and the facts. This is a fair deal and it is now a matter for individual workers to come to their own conclusions on it. We need to make these savings. This is a negotiated deal that the workers' representatives determined as far as they could do so. They reshaped the proposals on the table. There is no magic formula. Deputy Gerry Adams can have his magic formula, suggesting we can get rid of the troika and that we do not need its money. Why would we need it if we could go abroad to avail of health care rather than depend on the health care system here? In his imaginary world or bubble, everybody lives on the average industrial wage, but he or she has a lifestyle to which no worker on the average industrial wage in this country can aspire. That fantasy land is hollow. The job of the Government is to provide real solutions to the economic crisis facing the country. We are making the necessary repairs incrementally and rebalancing the public pay bill.

I acknowledge the extraordinary work of public sector workers. Nobody defended the Croke Park agreement more than I in the past two years, on the basis that we ultimately needed to look at how we could ensure the payroll and services were fit for purpose and matched our income stream. This deal will allow us get to that position. I have made a commitment that if it is accepted, we will not ask more of public sector workers. I hope they will accept this on that basis and not be distracted by the fantasy or rhetoric of those who are not interested in the recovery of the country but only in political pointscoring.

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