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

We all like people to vote but sometimes when people do not vote it might be due to a lack of interest or that they are saying they will let the others decide and accept the outcome regardless. Sometimes there can be indifference as well.

We cannot trumpet a result when it suits us and then when a result does not suit us, look at the underlying turnout. However, I stated there was a 31% turnout. The Teachers' Union of Ireland also voted against the Lansdowne Road agreement, with 92% opposed following a 60% turnout.

The ASTI decided not to be bound by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions aggregate acceptance of the agreement. That is something I cannot fully get to the bottom of. I do not know what that means because I thought that, generally, one was dealing with the Congress public sector committee here. It is a issue that is left hanging. Maybe it has been resolved to the knowledge and satisfaction of others.

In July 2015, the Lansdowne Road agreement was also rejected by the Irish Medical Organisation, with 93% voting against. They stated that the agreement does nothing to address the real crisis in the health service. Therefore, that vote was not exactly on the issue, but one could see the frustration and that the staff on the front line dealing with the health service are not happy with the funding of the health service. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors rejected the agreement by a majority of 53.6%. Those are merely a handful. We all will be aware that once the big unions are on-side, it is a done deal. One could argue that the smaller unions often have the luxury of being able to vote "No" in the full knowledge that it has already been carried in any event, but that will bring us to the overall collective agreement.

The consequences of non-compliance with the Lansdowne Road agreement have been raised by the ASTI in the context of increments and other adjustments to the teacher supervision and substitution allowance. The Haddington Road agreement included a commitment to address the supervision and substitution allowance for teachers at the 2011 rate of €1,592 by way of salary increases in two phases, in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. Section 10 of the Bill provides the statutory basis to effect the provisions of this commitment regarding supervision and substitution such that the pay of public servants may be adjusted to reflect the terms of a collective agreement. That is an issue to which we will have to return because some might feel that this could be interpreted as a punitive measure contained in the FEMPI legislation, as being unfair and heavy handed and disproportionate in reacting to the specific concerns of those involved in the provision of education. Those are the bones of contention.

On the bigger picture, as I stated, the general agreement has been accepted, has been voted on by public servants and it would be remiss of us not to support the implementation of this agreement. My party has been involved in lots of national pay agreements over many years and we always honoured them, both in the spirit and to the letter of the law. I do not see any reason to depart from our tradition on either public sector pay agreements or wider agreements including those from the farming and voluntary sectors. This agreement is not one of the latter agreements. It is an agreement between the Government and its employees. It is not a wider social agreement. There are those - I am sure the party the Minister, Deputy Howlin, is in government with - who might not agree with them getting any increase at all and, probably, if they had their way, would even cut their numbers and their salaries a little more if they could, and they complain about the pensions. Employees are paying substantially to their public sector pensions - it is only right to acknowledge that - through superannuation and pension deductions. That is always forgotten about in some of the equations and it is important to state.

In relation to the remuneration of public servants, the increases proposed under the Bill for those earning up to €24,000 is 2.5% on 1 January next year - the Government was correct to wait until the staff get the money in their pockets before it goes to the polls. The Government will hope the staff will be grateful for it but they will feel that it is their money, they have earned it and they should be getting it. The days of politicians feeling that people will be grateful for doing what they are elected to do are gone, if some ever thought they did. Those earning from €24,000 to €31,000 will get a 1% increase as well on 1 January. Those earning up to €65,000 will get €1,000 in September 2017 - they must wait as it is a little bit down the road.

Some of the staff on those higher salaries will qualify for the restoration of the 2013 reductions in pay under Haddington Road. Oireachtas Members, who are on a salary between €65,000 and €110,000, will get 50% of the 2013 reduction in April 2017. The Minister might clarify, for those Members who are here today who might not be here at that date, what is the exact position and will it be restored. He might, at Committee Stage-----

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