Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand that the Minister is not able to commit himself to any details and I was not really expecting him to do so as nobody could realistically expect that. He must, however, be going into the talks with some overall objectives and we did not hear about them in his reply.

The Minister will agree that every family has suffered financially in the past eight years and all families in Ireland, both in the public and private sectors, are entitled to share in any improvement in the economy. He will also agree that the initial focus should be on low and middle income earners. There is room in the public sector area for improvements in pay through not just pay rate adjustments but also reductions in the public sector pension levy, the USC and various other taxes. It is important that any discussions take place in the context that every household has contributed and any pay increases in the public sector should be in line with pay increases in the private sector. The public sector should not run ahead nor should it fall behind. What was missing from the Minister's reply was the 85% of the workforce outside the public sector whose position should also be taken into account.

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