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

On the positive side of the ledger, it should be acknowledged there is a level of pay relief for low and middle-income public and civil servants. While modest, it is welcome. As I said earlier, it is not going to lead to a life of luxury or excess for any of those individuals concerned. When faced with that proposition, I understand why individual workers and their unions backed the agreement, particularly after many years of cutbacks. It is welcome that there is some relief for those workers.

However, what is depressing, although not entirely unexpected, is that many of the reflexes of the system and of the Minister kick in again. I debated with him the equity argument of a full restoration of higher portions of income versus partial restoration for lower portions of income. That says to me that we have not made any progress over the past several years in the many debates we have had on this. The reflex also kicked in for former Ministers, taoisigh and tánaistí and so on, who are over-pensioned. Never mind emergency legislation, that matter should have been addressed a long time ago. The fact they too will have restored to them what they regard as their entitlement, and what I regard as an obscenity, is truly depressing.

Also on the negative side, is the feeling, if not yet the certainty, among certain groups of workers who rejected the Lansdowne Road agreement, that they will be singled out for special and negative attention. We will see if that comes to pass. Of course, ironically through the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation and its unwinding, the manner in which collective bargaining and industrial relations are reached in the public sector has changed utterly and not for the better.

I disagree with the Minister’s assertion that people have not figured out what this will mean in their take-home pay and their income level. I think that matter has been very quickly calculated and well understood within the Civil Service and the public service. What will be newsworthy to many people is that, despite all the rhetoric and initial posturing around an exclusive concern for those on €65,000 and under, this legislation sets out, black on white, full pay restoration for those higher portions of income, particularly for those over €110,000.

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