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

I understand the Taoiseach has asked the Labour Relations Commission to engage again with the trade unions a week after Croke Park II was decisively rejected by workers. At the same time, his Government is moving forward Estimates which include these pay cuts for front-line workers as a done deal.

For this new process to have any chance of success there must be a real policy shift in the Government's approach to this issue. Has the Taoiseach accepted the result of the Croke Park II ballot? Does he accept that Croke Park II is now off the table? Does he now accept that the big stick approach of issuing threats and diktats to public sector workers has failed? Will he definitively state that the Government threat to cut pay by 7% across the board is now off the table? This process must be a real renegotiation rather than a face-saving exercise or a tweaking. It cannot be like Lisbon II or Nice II. He cannot continue to ask workers to vote again until they give him the answer he wants. Is it a case of back to the drawing board? Is the Taoiseach genuinely open to new ideas and other ways to close the deficit?

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