Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That would not be fair, reasonable or logical. Deputy Fleming mentioned the letters issue. There is a difference between the clarifications that were sought by some unions, and that is the content of the letters that we issued. There were fewer than happened in previous agreements and it has never been the practice in agreements negotiated by Deputy Fleming's own government, going back to the beginning of social partnership, for those letters to be published. I would have an open mind on it but I am told that it would be a new precedent. I will reflect further on that if the Deputy is really animated about it, and we will come back to it on later when we have settled this particular set of matters.

Deputy McDonald talked about the constitutionality of these provisions and referenced one particular trade union. Every trade union, no less than any citizen, has the right to test the constitutionality of any provision enacted by these Houses. Of course they are entitled to do that, but I depend on the advice of the Attorney General in bringing legislative matters before this House. The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest, or FEMPI, legislation has probably been challenged more in the courts than any set of legislative measures and it has proven to be remarkably resilient and robust. It is the right of any individual to challenge it, however.

Although there are a number of bilateral agreements with individual sectoral unions, I still hope that there will be a critical mass to have an overarching agreement with the public sector unions and with congress. Therefore, this would ultimately be a congress agreement and there will be no exemptions from it and no contingencies required. That would still be my hope but it is a matter for the democratic process. That is what I would prefer to arrive at and it would be better for the public service generally than to have bilateral agreements with individual sectors or unions.

Deputy McDonald also referred to free collective bargaining, and I have already answered that question. She also mentioned the "last ask" issue and she dealt with that. In an earlier contribution, Deputy Fleming spoke about how far we had travelled on the road to recovery. He is so impressed by how far we have travelled that he feels I need to convince him again that we actually have a financial emergency. I think he half believes that we have escaped from it now, which is an interesting view. We have travelled a long way from the disaster that this Government inherited, but we are not out of the woods yet. We still a level of deficit that I instanced earlier and we are still borrowing at the rate of €1 billion per month.

Once this particular set of measures is put in place, it is my absolute, firm intention that we will not be looking at public sector pay again for the duration of this Parliament and Government, and for the duration of this agreement. I hope that the next negotiations that we embark upon with the public sector unions will be about undoing some of the difficult measures that have been enacted in FEMPI legislation and other measures. We will therefore be talking about improvements in terms and conditions. That is what I would like. I think that is a reasonable expectation now because we have made so many difficult decisions.

In reply to Deputy McDonald, I want to refer to the notion of low income. It is unreasonable to categorise people in excess of €65,000 per annum as being on low income.

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