Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It was possible. The matter had to be taken up with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. That is the reality for vast numbers of public sector workers. They have had their pay slashed by between 15% and 20%. Now, they are having their hours increased. Numbers have been slashed with an overall loss since 2008 of 9.3% or approximately 30,000 public sector workers. As Deputy McDonald pointed out, even before the crash came Ireland did not have a high level of public sector employment compared with other OECD countries.

All this talk of reform is to cover up the fact that workers and ordinary citizens in general, but particularly public sector workers, have become the scapegoats for the economic crisis that was caused by politicians, developers and bankers who are still protected. There have been no reforms there. No matter what they do, they are protected and bailed out. However, again and again ordinary workers have to bear the brunt of this.

Frankly, some of this stuff is almost bordering on the insulting. I was reading the digest which referred to mobility for generalist staff. I would like to know what are generalist staff.

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