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

The Minister will recall that at the time he did not invoke the provision as he did not have to do so. Public sector workers felt that, while they were nominally around the table for discussions, in fact, they were on the menu. They felt hugely disempowered. The Minister took an onerous power onto himself. It is welcome that the measure will be repealed and removed from the Statute Book and I hope it will never reappear in any incarnation in the future.

There is a difficulty with the issue of pay recovery and I have discussed the matter previously with the Minister. Lower grade public servants and civil servants on lower pay are struggling badly, not unlike others in society and the economy. Whatever is the detail of the repeal of specific mechanisms, the real question for them is when there will be some relief in their pay packets, pockets and households. The Minister is aware that many people who work for the State rely on family income supplement to make ends meet. There is an urgent need to address the matter, starting with the low paid, not with those in the upper echelons, and to set out and agree in a concrete way, rather than in a theoretical way, to the milestones people might expect to see in respect of pay recovery. As the Minister was quick enough to set out milestones for cuts and the damage to people’s income levels, he should set out a positive trajectory in terms of pay recovery.

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