Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

After yesterday's ballot results from SIPTU on the Croke Park II agreement it is now very clear it has been rejected by the membership of trade unions throughout the country. Many union members never believed in the first instance that this was a fair deal and they were not persuaded by the Government. We have been pointing out to the Government, and putting down markers with regard to the strategy it adopted, the disproportionate attack on and unfairness of the deal to front-line workers in particular. For some reason, health sector workers seemed to have been sidelined and shafted from the very beginning as were workers in the justice arena.

The Government's strategy was essentially a mixture of divide and conquer, pitting unions against unions, with a little bribery at the end with a €300 million honeypot for a range of side deals with various unions, the details of which have never been publicised. When the soundings were negative towards the end, basic intimidation and threats were used with the Government stating if the unions did not vote "Yes" it would go ahead with legislation to introduce an across the board 7% cut. The mixture and combination in this strategy was clearly wrong and misfired significantly, and union members did not take well to the threats. The result is a rejection of the deal. A message has been sent to the Government by public sector workers.

Notwithstanding the cynical strategy deployed to get the deal over the line and having approached it more as a numbers game than anything else, does the Government have a plan B? The Minister responsible, Deputy Howlin, seemed to be shell-shocked on "Six-One" yesterday in his response to the deal. He spoke about telephone calls. For many people on the ground there was no surprise that the deal went down. The only surprise today is that Ministers seemed to have been surprised and taken aback by the result. Surely the Taoiseach must have factored into his thinking the possibility the deal would be rejected and has a plan B. If he does not, do we take it the threats, utterances and articulation by the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, that he would go ahead anyway - which the Taoiseach also stated earlier in the process - were never meant and it is not now on the agenda? Will the Taoiseach outline his plan B given the outcome of the vote on Croke Park II?

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