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

That is why workers really get fed up with the mixed messages that flow from the Government. What the Taoiseach has said is really a threat to workers. He is basically saying that if there is no agreement, there will be no protection. He did this about two months ago also. Again, it was not followed through. The Government is reaching out on the one hand, while saying that if one does not play ball, there will be no protection in terms of employment.

Nurses, health care workers and public servants felt the deal was fundamentally unclear. There was a divide and conquer approach at the time and it is continuing. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform said yesterday that he would work with the trade unions that would work with him. That old tradition of number counting is what got the deal into trouble from day one. The Government was looking at the electoral college set-up and counting the numbers and it got it wrong. It tried to isolate certain workers, particularly in the health care sector. We know that gardaí were isolated much earlier. The Government needs to go back to the drawing board in terms of how the deal was constructed and the composition of the pay cuts for specific workers.

The Taoiseach has confirmed that there will be only little adjustments. Government sources said yesterday there could only be a tweaking of the deal. In reality, the laws that must be enacted to give effect to the pay deal are ready. While informed industrial relations correspondents are saying the Government has bought a little time for itself, it seems it has bought time to try to get the numbers right here by getting Labour Party backbenchers to vote for the necessary legislation to get the deal through. That is what is on the agenda for the next fortnight. Deep down, the Government knows there is no room for the kind of substantive renegotiation of the deal that those representing the workers are saying is required. The Government's position is that only a tweaking of the deal can occur. The real agenda is to get everybody on board to vote through the pay deal in the context of legislation that is ready to go and which the Minister has drawn up.

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