Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Croke Park II was rejected because it is a failed construct. I have no issue with the target to reduce public expenditure by €300 million but I object to Croke Park II, which aims to take it wholly and exclusively from pay and other remuneration. Any proposal to reduce expenditure must comply with three principles, the first of which is that public sector workers must be allowed find the targets within waste and other non-pay areas, and we are all aware that there are many such areas.

Second, any final reduction which may have to come from pay to meet the target, after waste is dealt with, must be applied fairly. However, the formula applied was not fair. The figures for the GRA, for example, show that a garda on €35,000 who works nights and weekends, would have seen a cut in the Croke Park II deal of €2,500 euro, but a civil servant who sits here and works from 9 a.m till 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday, on €65,000, would not have seen a single cent of reduction to his pay. That is patently unfair. Third, any reduction that must come and which is applied fairly after waste is dealt with, must be done in a way that takes issues such as unsustainable debts for households into account. It must be part of a policy approach.

I commend the motion put forward by Fianna Fáil and I fully understand why public sector workers voted against Croke Park II.

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