Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Seamus Healy's point, I have made clear my undertaking to honour any agreement entered into by the Government with the trade union movement and public sector workers. We will honour the Croke Park agreement, the Haddington Road agreement and the Lansdowne Road agreement in full. Nobody will be excluded. The Deputy is correct that the Haddington Road agreement runs until the summer of 2016, but he is incorrect that all some people want is to ensure the provisions of that agreement are maintained. In fact, some people want the pay restoration benefits of the Lansdowne Road agreement in 2016 also. They do not want to be excluded from it. All I am saying is that one cannot have the benefits of an agreement to which one is not party. Nobody is going to break the Haddington Road agreement, but the restoration of pay is a provision of the Lansdowne Road agreement. If people want to avail of pay restoration measures, they have to be part of the relevant agreement. It is as simple as that.

The public sector is a very diverse entity, with many sectors and sub-sectors within it providing a broad range of services for the public. We must work at some level of logic. We cannot have people in the public sector determining on an individual basis what they buy into and which arrangements they are willing to work. People cannot simply choose their working hours or the conditions they enjoy according to their own wishes. Overarching decisions are made that apply to grades in the public service and to everybody in that grade if they want to serve. That is part of their terms and conditions of employment. I do not have the exact numbers, but because in excess of two thirds of civil servants are part of trade unions, we negotiate with those unions on the basis that they have democratically determined the views of their members. When an agreement is endorsed by a union on behalf of its members, we implement it.

What we are doing today is moving out of the dark phase of pay cuts, pension cuts, additional working hours and so on and beginning the process of pay and pension restoration and an improvement in conditions for workers in the public sector. Are there public sector workers and pensioners who would like that to happen more quickly? Yes, there are. Would I like to see it being done sooner? Yes and I wish none of this was required. We have come out of the dark night of economic ruin and are moving into a brighter place. We must pick our path carefully to avoid putting the recovery in jeopardy. As I said, the fiscal space I will have available to me next year will be in the order of €750 million and I have allocated €300 million for public sector pay and pensions restoration. I have been heavily criticised for that level of allocation, but I consider it the right thing to do. I asked people in the teeth of crisis to step up to the plate and, in a way of which I am extraordinarily proud, that is exactly what they did. All the public servants involved in this process were hugely influential in helping us along the path to recovery, which is now well advanced but not complete. I hope we will be able to review this legislation in the next three years as the economic recovery continues apace.

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