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

Section 2B really cuts to the chase in what the Government is seeking to achieve with the legislation. On the one hand it reconfirms the strategy of dividing and conquering public sector workers, although the Minister is aware that a trade union is seeking legal advice on the constitutionality of treating different workers in a different manner on the basis of trade union membership or otherwise. The Minister referred to these as "contingency" measures in his Second Stage speech but if he already has the power to arbitrarily cut pay and increase hours, why would he feel it necessary to set that out in legislation?

How can the Minister claim that this legislation respects the principles and practice of free, collective bargaining when he has presented us with the legislative instrument that gives him and his fellow Ministers the power to ride roughshod over that process? It is not appropriate for the Minister to have powers to arbitrarily cut wages or increase hours and it is laughable for him to seek powers through this legislation while claiming that he respects the collective bargaining tradition of this State. I would have thought the Minister, Deputy Howlin, would have had some commitment to that as a member of the Labour Party.

The Minister indicated that this round of cuts will be the "last ask" of public servants but I wonder about that. This legislation gives the Minister the capacity not just now but on a future occasion to cut and sideline if he so wishes the collective bargaining process, allowing him to intervene unilaterally and directly. That is simply wrong and it is alarming, given the fact that the Minister's track record is to go after low and middle income workers, freeze and pause increments and increase working hours.

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