Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The effects of the Haddington Road agreement are now becoming obvious in the form of a deterioration of public services from the point of view of ordinary people and are destructive of public services. The recent Prime Time exposé of a crisis in the ambulance service shows that it is not possible to take thousands of workers from public services, including the health service, and still expect to have a comprehensive service for our people.

Does the Minister agree that trade unions now rue the collective agreements in the local authority sector under the Haddington Road agreement given that the Government is now taking hundreds of long-term unemployed people and will compel them into forced labour with local authorities through the gateway scheme, working 19.5 hours for €20 a week? They will earn €1.03 an hour doing often-crucial work, such as village enhancement schemes, landscaping, control of animals, libraries, which should be done by people with full-time properly paid jobs with decent conditions. Instead the Government is forcing people, who are unfortunate to be long-term unemployed because no real jobs are being created, into this type of forced labour.

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