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

I put on record my thanks to the Minister for acknowledging the great work done by the previous Government in introducing the FEMPI legislation which, as he said, has underpinned the reductions in public sector pay by correcting the national finances. I welcome his acknowledgement of the great achievements in that area under the Croke Park Agreement, even though an agreement was very difficult to get at the time. We paid a price in the short term for introducing those measures and it has taken time for them to work their way through but I am pleased that the Minister has continued to work with the FEMPI legislation that he inherited when he came into office. I acknowledge that he continually refers to reductions in the public sector pay bill from 2009 to the current date. He knows that the majority of those decisions, which have put us on the right road, were taken in 2009, 2010 and 2011, prior to the present Government coming into office. Everybody in Ireland suffered financially and every family is now entitled to some share of the recovery, both in the public and private sector. It should not, however, be at the expense of front-line services.

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