Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As a matter of law, the Taoiseach has responsibility for the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, and relations with social partners. The Government has sought to introduce legislation to repeal the NESC Act but that has not occurred. As of now, therefore, the Taoiseach has responsibility for the NESC.

This week, as others have told the Taoiseach in clear terms, the impact of industrial unrest will be very real indeed. Parents and students will be disrupted and parents are already very anxious about how they will cope and manage their daily affairs, whether getting children to school or minding them at home if schools are closed.

Garda sergeants and inspectors will ramp up their administrative action and we face very shortly the horrendous thought of a full withdrawal of An Garda Síochána from front-line duties.

My party has proposed solutions to these issues. As one of the architects of both the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements, I have argued for some time that we need to formally begin negotiations for a successor deal to the Lansdowne Road agreement that would accelerate the restoration for all public servants on an agreed and affordable basis. Labour has also argued, and Seanad Éireann agreed with the formal resolution put to it, that an employer-labour conference should be re-established.

None of these seem to matter. The Government mantra which we have heard again and again is that the Lansdowne Road agreement is the only show in town, as if Government policy was frozen in time. It is clear that this mantra is not now good enough. FEMPI, as I have continually repeated in this House, is by definition emergency legislation that has to be justified on an ongoing basis to the courts, and there have been many challenges. There is an imperative on the Government to be seen to be engaging in unwinding that legislation in a way that does not threaten the public finances and that is fair to all public servants.

What the law says in particular about the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, is that it is required to advise the Government on developing a strategic framework for the conduct of relations and negotiations between Government and the social partners. In that specific legal context, was the Taoiseach or his Department engaged with NESC in seeking its advice on a strategic framework for industrial peace? Has he sought its advice on these matters or is the Government's approach simply to ignore what the law says, as well as ignoring the growing list of expert opinion, daily recited in the national newspapers, which agrees with the proposals I have once again put to him, namely, to continue engagement in the unravelling over time of the FEMPI legislation, in an orderly and affordable way that is fair to all?

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