Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy. The reverse is the case. This process has been honest with workers from the start. We laid out the requirements of the State in terms of the pay bill, as everybody knows, the condition of the public finances and the view of Government that we needed to make a further contribution to solving the deficit hole through reducing the pay and pensions bill. We opened the books so that people could understand, and then we engaged to see how we could do that with as much agreement as possible. The first set of negotiated agreements through the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, were rejected, and we gave further time to the LRC to see if that discussion could be reopened. Unions that did not really engage the first time around engaged the second time around. That was a good, open, democratic and honest process. However, like any employer, we could not allow a situation in which there would be no consequences for those who did not accept the agreement while those who accepted it would face the consequences. The Deputy knows that. We will make the savings, hopefully through agreement across all sectors. It is still the Government's wish that every employee be subject to the Haddington Road agreement, but where there are sectors that exclude themselves from it, the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation will apply.

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