Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to engage in fisticuffs on these really important issues with the Deputy opposite. In respect of the notion that there was any black propaganda, if I said anything at any stage that was untrue the Deputy should put it on the record now.

I noticed that the Deputy himself set out the Fianna Fáil position last Sunday on national television. He said that we should not be looking for €300 million in savings this year but for €350 million. He contested 6% of the €1 billion set out in the LRC recommendations that I supported, €60 million for front-line services. In other words, he accepted 94% of the proposals. We have an issue to address, a shortfall of €300 million in the allocated, voted monies on the pay side of our budget for this year. We have to address this because neither I nor the Government intend that the matter should continue to a crisis point. We are calmly reflecting upon the decision of workers and it is quite clear that different workers voted for different reasons. The very highest paid, including the IMO, senior civil servants, rejected it. They were hardly doing so because it failed to impact on high pay. Others who were very minimally affected voted against it for other reasons. We have to reflect on that but the inescapable issue Government has to address is that we need to find the money.

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