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

I support the legislation, primarily because it will allow for the Lansdowne Road agreement, which was freely entered into by the trade union movement representing its members and the Government as their employers. It was put to a democratic vote and the majority voted for it. I believe in the democratic principle that it should carry. Notwithstanding that, I do not ever remember a social partnership agreement which had 100% support. There was always a handful against it; sometimes, craft unions while other times, higher paid unions. Social solidarity applies in the workforce and when the majority agrees on agreement, it is accepted. In the old days, it was done in the yard or in the canteen with a show of hands. Now, it is done through secret ballot. My party has always supported social partnership. When the financial emergency commenced several years ago, measures had to be taken unilaterally by the then Government. The Croke Park agreement was to stabilise the situation after those unilateral actions.

This is the sixth in the series of FEMPI Bills. We had pay cuts originally, culminating with a third round contained in the Haddington Road agreement. This legislation unwinds the third cut, not the previous two wage cuts. I support the trade union movement when it makes the democratic decision to accept and approve the Lansdowne Road agreement. I am disappointed that some Members chose not to accept the Lansdowne Road agreement and, instead, wanted to cherry-pick this legislation to exclude certain people from an agreement accepted by the majority of public sector workers.

In the past, when the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, was a Fine Gael spokesperson, he always gave out that the big deals in social partnership were done outside the House without any legislation or debate. Maybe those agreements did not require legislation but his complaint was the axis of power on those issues was not in the Chamber. Now, the least the trade unions can expect from the Oireachtas is that when they have entered into an agreement that it would not be unravelled, particularly where some Members think it would be popular to do so. It was a long and tortuous process to get all the voting on this agreement to be completed. If we start cherry-picking the agreement, we will ultimately end up undoing it. I oppose that type of cherry-picking.

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